How to protect turntable from children?

Norm Cones at Stereo Squares has done a few jobs for me with excellent results, very reasonable prices too.

Stereo Squares

Best of luck

Peter

Yes, locking the kids in a bookcase works swell.

Get a Target Wall shelf. There are a couple different sizes and one has two shelves, one has one shelf. It will hold a heavy TT. I am using one to support a Classic 1 VPI clocking in at over 60 lbs plus a 12 lb maple isolation shelf. My four year old dances like crazy and it never skips a beat, and I placed it high enough she can't reach it. You can view my system pics to see how it looks set up. It isolates pretty well as it is bolted directly to the wall studs, bypassing the floor joists.

MKsolid,

Don't listen to Dekay. Locking children in bookcase is cruel and inhumane. Buy pair of handcuffs instead - it works really well.

Seriously, the best way is to explain it to children. I showed my 3 year old daughter how to operate tape deck and TT. If you don't sooner or later you'll be sorry. My friend protected his TT and stereo but his daughter got interest in records and "cleaned" them all with pumice stone to make them smooth (remove groves).

When you have kids don't have a Turntable.That's you're best bet.

Kijanki:

Parenting!!!

Time consuming, but also quite rewarding.

Matt:

A budget and basic taste preferences may help gather better advice.

If you look @ my system description you will see that all the electronics are well protected.

However, if I were to place the electronics in the listening room, which is also our living room, I would modify a real piece of furniture to house the gear as I've yet to see a Hi-Fi rack/cabinet I'd want to look @ on a daily basis.

If the budget is on the lower side consider now obsolete furniture quality wardrobes once produced to hide older/large cathode ray tube TV's.

I still see them @ the local thrifts for very little money and they are deep enough (many with additional shelving) to hold a whole system plus extra stuff.

If you want a lower profile look @ credenza/sideboard type cabinets with front opening doors.

We use an old Japanese Tansu cabinet to store CD's (it holds 1200+ and the CD's are placed upright with the labels showing, in its shallow drawers).

Before (the CD's) is was generaly used to store small crap.

Think outside the box.

Show them a picture of kids in an orphanage. Tell them if they touch the turntable, that's where they will end up.

Seriously, if they show any interest, buy a cheapy one box player they can have fun with and learn to play with just like daddy.

I like that idea that Rhljazz has. When I was that age, I had one of those little briefcase tables that I spun my Alvin and the Chipmunks record on. Amazon has a bunch of them with built in speakers for under $100 and as low as $47.

Oh come on they just want to hear how that PB&J sandwich sounds. When my kids were young they tried to see the picture of the PB&J with the VCR.

Depends a lot on your kids. It's a bit presumptuous for some to suggest that the issue is always parenting. There are limits to how far "parenting" will go -- especially if you have kids with any issues or special needs.

My solution (for now) -- no turntable. Seriously, I can't believe some of the stuff my kids have broken. And they are well supervised and well parented (IMHO).

Dekay's suggestion about the furniture grade media armoires is a good one. I bought a huge (5' wide by 6' high, solid cherry one w 4 large drawers below, a series of selves on one side behind a door and a pair of pocket doors on the other side for about 30 cents on the dollar a couple of years ago. Now I expect it would be 20 cents on the dollar.

You can pick up some of those dog shock collars and put them on each kid. You can also us scat mats and charge them up with, say, 10 volts at a half an amp. That should do it.

Put it in a locked room.

It's called the wrath of dad. Seriously, I taught my kids early on you don't touch moms stuff or dads stuff without permission. Besides these days the are far more interested in their MacBook pros, iPods, iPhones, etc.

My older one is asking for a TT, likely will get a ProJect, or an old Dual and make sure it's fitted with a cartridge where the stylus is user replaceable.

I have found that grandkids are the best excuse for a dedicated sound room--that is kept locked.

My wife created a fabric cover that went over the acrylic cover of my (at the time) Thorens TT. Around that and the bottom of the TT, we wrapped a piece of elastic with Velcro closure.

The fabric blocked the TT from view and limited its intrigue. The elastic, if our son ever attempted to get into the closure (which he didn't), was meant to slow him down, allowing one of us to hopefully halt the unveiling.