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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 pingz

pingz
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In the late 70’s a co-worker and myself walked into the Conrad Hilton Chicago for a Hi-Fi/Electronics show.  I walked out with a used Phase Linear amp.  My co-worker said “Don’t waste your money on that crap.” He was speaking in general about hi-fi stuff. He was married, I was single.  Sure enough, the Phase Linear (some called Flame Linear) smoked and took out my speakers. Fortunately, as a DIYer I restored the speakers, but didn’t salvage the amp.

I often think about his criticism of those early days of my audio journey as I have gotten so much enjoyment from it all these decades.  Short term, he was spot on!

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