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What is your scariest moment in High End audio?

After upgrading my digital front end, with another glass of wine in hand, I thought perhaps the analog setup deserved an upgrade from the entry level Kpetsu.

I then discovered that Koetsu was over! A search found a source for a Rosewood Signature Platinum, which I duly purchased and installed, together with a 3 gm weight in the JMW Memorial arm. That went OK, and I set it up using the VPI Scoutmaster jig, set the tracking weight to 1.9 gms, aligned the azimuth and made sure that the Sutherland Duo was set to 100 ohms and 64dB gain.

I settled down to a glorious hour or two of listening.  Then I thought "Did I get the downforce right.  Checked it & spot on.

i put another record on, lowered the arm to the record.  SILENCE (I could actually here the stylus in the groove but that was it.)

OMG.  Yes the cables were in.  Yes the pre was set to input from the deck. Had I destroyed a $6,700 inadvertently?

After 5 minutes of panic I turned off everything and restarted. All OK.  Who knew that a pre-amp could need rebooting?

 

 

retiredaudioguy

Showing 1 response by cundare2

cundare2
296 posts
 

The day I watched in horror one of my meticulously restored Quad ESLs arc.  Through the grill, I could see a little spark walk across the treble panel, like a burning fuse on a stick of dynamite.

To my surprise, this didn't affect the sound all that much.  I learned from the factory that small arcs, in aggregate, have a cumulative effect on the sound, but a single arc won't necessarily be disastrous.  At worst, it may make the panel more vulnerable to future arc events.

Good thing I had a supply of NOS panels in the closet... 

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