Worst Audio Injury !!

Well, now I've read the book--When is the movie comming out? Reminds me of the story of the guy who heard that 75% of all accidents happen in the house---so he wanted to move.Oh, if you are having sex---be careful.Yes ,we've all had things like that happen.I can only imagine how many backs went out moving Krells and the like.I'm just not telling about mine,sorry.

What?!

I tripped while carrying a brand new CD player and did everything I could while falling to keep the CD player from hitting the ground and that meant landing right on my back hard.

You guys are scaring me.

I'm thankful that this is not the only place to post on this site. I guess I value the info about hi end audio to waste my time reading unrelated subjects. Richard

My worst injury was in a Best Buy store. I was there, minding my own business, then this salesman turned on a pair of Bose speakers! Nearly ruined my hearing.

This is my 2nd post;I just remembered,only my wallet was hurt for this.Just got this brand new moving coil cartridge.The NEXT day,I'm wiping a speck off the tip---you got it,it broke. RE tipping was fast ---only 6 weeks---and cheap only 400.And yes maybe a year latter, did it again. My wallet had a heart attack and a stroke.

I accidentally brushed my hand against the test resistor while biasing my tube amp. 420 Volts. Been awake ever since ! Worst audio setup experience was carrying set of boxed vandersteen 3s into the house and up a flight of stairs!

Have you ever put a sub into rear seat of a compact car. My back hurt for weeks.

Mine ocurred trying to wire my home theater through the attic. We have vaulted ceilings, so the attic crawlspace is minimal at best. Anyway, I was bellycrawling across the rafters to reach the far corner of the house when a major case of claustrophobia set in. I started hyperventilating and responded by lifting my head right into the roofing nails. Two feet backwards, lift and puncture. Again. And again. And again. All the time screaming and cussing everything and everybody at the top of my lungs (much to the entertainment of my wife and daughter). When I finally got out of the attic, there was blood streaming all down my face and head, all over my shirt. Hell, I looked like I had gone half-an-hour with Cactus Jack in a Texas Barbwire Death Match. After about an hour, I was able to make five minute ventures back to the attic. It took me almost ten hours to run two rear speaker cables and a phone line. Sounds great, but never, NEVER again.

I was installing a shelf for my amplifiers, and set my Makita cordless drill on a shelf next to the amps while I hoisted the amp up onto the new installed support. The drill fell off, and landed business end first on my bare foot, driving a Robertson bit right through just above my big toe. The bit was sticking out the bottom of my foot. I hobbled to the bathroom with the drill hanging out of my foot, pulled the drill bit slowly upwards, a which point I lost several pints of blood. I still have the scar to remind me of the mishap.

Hey Zoo,Give you 9.7 for the story telling.7.3 on the pratfall. 10,if I had witnessed it. Style must be observed first hand.(ouch)

Jeff,sounds like you had a "bit"of a problem!!

David, good thing I didn't have a 1" drill bit in the damned drill. A2z: lighten up

Worst audio injury was to our dorm's cleaning woman when I was in college (1972.) I had a home made amp that I thought needed a cover to keep prying fingers out, so I bent one up out of aluminum flashing, like an upside down "U" (only temporary, of course.) I didn't round over the sharp edges since they were on the bottom. The poor woman saw it was dusty underneath the amp, and picked it up by the bottom edges! She got cut right through the fingers to the bone. Ouch!

My posting was meant to be funny (about Best Buy and Bose) you guys, especially Zootallures and Jeffloistarca, deserve some compassion. Injury's like the ones you describe would haunt me, awake or asleep, for the rest of my life!

R_schwartz-hey, the cover did its job,kept prying fingers OUT!!

What? Whad ya say?

The series of blows as initiated by my wife's flying fists that I receive every time I upgrade, you know the injury- accompanied by the statement "What Is THAT? Is that NEW?!!"... whack!!!

Thanks for the compassion, Albertporter. I still have to sleep with the nightlite on (and I'm 44). By the way, Avguygeorge, if I decide to try this again I am going to get a pay-per-view contract first for all to enjoy!

A couple of months ago we got a kitten-- "Teasil" (now also known as the "Beige Bomber"). She was allowed run of our utility and family rooms. Well, I have a second stereo system in the family room with Vandersteen 2Ce speakers. I'm sure many of you know that Vandersteens are boxless and have cloth on all four sides. Teasil almost immediately started climbing the 'steens-- she could go up them like she was shot out of a cannon-- not good, not good. But according to vet. info., cats don't like tinfoil so we completely wrapped the 'steens in tinfoil, and I put 3/16s" (read heavy) steel plates on top of the speakers (to accomodate the cat). All this has largely stopped her attacks on the 2Ces, but as to the injuries: 1. badly bruised ego, ie the Beige Bomber has out-manuerved us on every count. 2. Have you ever heard speakers wrapped in tinfoil? I had to try it, but may never hear normally again. This experience gave new meaning to the word "tinny" sound-- circuit city stuff sounds better. P.S. I sure sympathize with Zoo and Jeff (above posts)-- great stories. Cheers? Craig.

How about tripping over a speaker cable and falling on the corner of a faceplate of a Krell KSA 250. OUUCH!

Garfish, this is the first situation I have ever heard of, where Richard Vandersteen was "foiled" in his attempt to build a speaker that was the "cats meow."

Albert; thanks for the humor-- I needed it. I also should have mentioned "mental anguish" as an injury in my post. I don't know when we'll regain use of the 'steens. Cheers. Craig.

Last week I was hospitalized in an intensive care section for "paroxysmal positional vertigo." I woke up one morning and could not move my head without the world spinning and shaking so fast that I would immediately throw up. For a few days I was totally incapable of even turning my head let alone standing on my feet and walking. My medical doctors did not understand this, but you audiogon doctors might see the relevance of the following fact to the diagnosis when I say that I do 95% of my listening on a very expensive set of electrostatic "earspeakers" (note: brand name not mentioned) and I wonder if the disease and the product are not related. However, I might have been healed by the plant that poisoned me: The vertigo tests at the throat-nose-ear doctor involved ear washes at different temperatures that improved my hearing (especially sensitivity to sounds in the 4-6KHz frequency range and transient response). It and the blood infusions I was given in the hospital were the best "upgrade to my system" in recent years.

I can't beat any of the aforementioned injuries, but sometimes my back and shoulder still hurt from carrying my Klipsch KLF20's (90+lbs packed) up to the second floor of my old apartment. When we moved I gladly paid for them to be moved.

The most memorable injury to me was mental (guilt) and real to "Joey" our pet cocketiel. During the winter months the birds stay in the house at night and often I will keep them in the listening room. Both Joey and Freddie love music, or so it seems, they can really get to talking and whistling up a storm when the music is playing. Sometimes my wife and I will "dance" with them, that we'll dance and have one or both on either finger and whistle or sing to the music. That and the music will generally get them whistling. They love it and it is a lot of fun for us too. On one particularly cold evening about a year ago the birds and myself were "dancing". It got a little out of hand and the bird started flying. I am always nervous when they start flying because of the tube gear, which they seem to instinctively stay away from but they can become disorientated and you never know. I thought, enough "dancing" for the evening, it was time to settle down a bit. Both birds ended up in their favorite place, perched on the back of the couch. I got Joey first and put him on the cage, which was on the floor. I turned around to get Freddie but he started flying again. I pivoted around to turn down the volume of the stereo and as I did I felt a soft lump on the floor under my shoes. I immediately got this funny feeling that whatever it was shouldn't be there. I lifted up my foot and there was Joey missing about half his feathers and just sitting there looking so helpless. I was pretty broken up thinking that there was no way he couldn't survive my 190 lbs. I held him and he was very listless. It was a Saturday night so I couldn't take him to his vet. I took him to an emergency hospital clinic. We waited and waited and Joey by this time was perched on my shoulder as listless as ever. The vet checked him out and everything appeared fine, no broken bones. He remained listless for about 2-3 days and gradually improved. But it took about 2-3 weeks before he started talking again. The guilt from this accident is worse than any physical pain I can ever remember incurring on myself. As for Joey he is fine and as irrepressible as ever.

Hey Tubegroover, I hope you are still able to eat Chicken after a horrible experience like that. Seriously, glad to hear the bird is fine.

Here's one for you. I went to retube my old VTL Deluxe Preamp, after it had been unplugged for 2 weeks. Well, the capacitors in this unit may look like "D" cell batteries, but they hold what feels like a car batteries worth of potentially fatal electricity. This I found out the hard way. I've got one hand on the metal case of the unit, and the other on one of the tubes. I'm "wiggling" the tube gently to free it and it comes part way out, backing into a verticle PCB (the tubes are mounted horizontily). Next thing I see is a bright flash, and a VERY loud "POP! CRACKLE!" sound. The current went in one arm and out the other, both arms and my chest tensed up so hard I thought I was having a heart attack. It was maybe a 1/2 second long, but it felt like about 10 seconds, before I broke the connection. My arms and chest were sore for about 2 days after this little mishap. Now this may sound like an easy way to drain the Cap's before you work on a piece of tube gear, but I wouldn't advise it :) I guess in a pickle you could revive someone having a heart attack this way.....

Tubegroover, it takes courage to tell a story like you did. Your love for your other family members, including the feathered ones is an insight to your personality. I can just imagine you dancing to music you love and enjoying the birds who are reacting to the energy and the sound . I suppose I should not be surprised that a person who cares so deeply for music would care equally about the well being of a small bird. For me, It was particularly enjoyable that you choose to share your experience.

Back in 1976 I had a pair of my brothers' home made electrostatic speakers. It was a big full range job and used a high voltage power supply for the diaphram. Incidently, the wire used for the power supply had a crack or cut in the wire, which found its' way to my foot as I walked by. It burned a small portion of my little toe, and threw me back, wondering if a 12 year old could really have a heart attack ...

Recres@msn.com, judging from the year that accident happened, could "Electric Light Orchestra" have been playing? That would explain the shocking encounter.

It was either E.L.O. or "You Light up my Life".

You guys are too much! Two memories surface: When I was around 12 (ca. 1964) I remember installing a tone control in an old 5 tube non-transformered table radio, and, not having disconnected it from the AC, carefully applied the old "keep one arm behind your back" adage so as not to complete a circuit through my corpus. Well, after several moments I recall waking up on the floor on the other side of the room with a nasty bump on my head. A quick look-see in the mirror revealed a small red mark on my neck (no hickeys in this kid's life yet!). The next day I reapproached my basement workbench with trepidation, and looking up, noticed the dangling here-to-fore-innocent piece of 16 ga that I had clamped to a cold water pipe as a convenient "working ground". Boy did it work!

Subwoofer accident? Sort of... and with sincere apology to Tubegroover: As a teenager in the late 60s I traveled around northern Rhode Island playing baroque organ at wonderful French Canadian churches sporting huge 4 and 5 rank organs (mostly made by the Casavant Freres of Quebec). I remember playing for a wedding service at St. Cecilia in Pawtucket, RI, one Saturday, and in the middle of the service saw a large shadow of a bird traversing the length of the cathedral below. It was a crow flying back and forth under the ceiling lights, casting airplane-like silhouettes on the congregation. Soon enough the entire crowd's attention was fixed on this aerial display, to the dismay of the wedding party. At the end of one pass the crow landed on the tallest organ pipe, a good 15' above my head. I reasoned that I could scare him away without disturbing the services by shaking him up with the 32' Bourdon. So I pulled out this mammoth stop, lowered my foot on the low C pedal, and felt the shudder of the 16Hz "tone" shaking the whole place. I suppose most folks assumed it was a truck passing by, or a mild tremor of some sort, but the huge infrasonic pressure wave startled the bird sufficiently to result in it falling down inside the organ pipe! Throughout the remainder of the service, to my horror, I could hear the bird rustling in the pipe, unable to get out! The priest and wedding party were grateful for the cessation of the aerial display, but I have never been able to forgive myself for this murderous note, and consequently limit myself to a sound system flat down to 32 Hz as penance! This is a true story...thanks for letting me get it off my chest....Ernie

Ernie all I can say to that story is boy can I relate! I feel for you.

Wow Ernie! What a story. I've heard of "Bats in the bellfree", but this takes the cake!! Just say three "Hail Marys and ..."

My worst one was when I almost broke my back and had to wear various Posture Correctors from Befit to hold my back intact for like a year. Yeah, it was that bad. How did it happen? I lifted our stereo and instantly heard a crack in the back. Thankfully I was able to recover pretty fast from it.

I recently built bookshelves and a console for my components. During all that time I was carrying plywood etc and my back started to hurt. Then I had to move my amp, 100 pounds, and tweaked my back again. A little later I was kneeling on the floor and lifted one of my speakers with steel base and spikes (130 pounds) and the pain hit me. I could hardly get back up.

It was mostly muscle spasm but with a sciatic/spinal stenosis component with referred pain down both legs (which is a bad sign). I could hardly move for 3 solid days. Had to sleep in a chair. Wife had to help me get dressed. Missed a day of work which I never do. Worst pain I've ever had and I've had broken bones and kidney stones. That's been over 6 weeks ago and I'm still not 100%.

The worst one I've ever heard of happened to a fellow audiophile's wife. He told me that he put on a Tom Jones recording and then nailed his wife between the speakers. 

Frank

I hurt my jaw pretty bad when it hit the floor when I heard The Intelligent Chip the first time. 🤕 

I dislocated my jaw laughing at Geoffkait's Teleportation tweek !!!!!!!!!!!

@jeffloistarca , "The drill fell off, and landed business end first on my bare foot, driving a Robertson bit right through just above my big toe. The bit was sticking out the bottom of my foot. I hobbled to the bathroom with the drill hanging out of my foot, pulled the drill bit slowly upwards, a which point I lost several pints of blood."

OMG! Ouch! 

I once nearly burned through the soldering iron cord and my hand in frustration as I tried to solder a missing capacitor on the back of a CD drive - don't ask!  Damn thing was tiny and I knew I was beat. Eventually got it done by a local electrical shop by an experienced guy who was leagues better than I'll ever be. 


@zorathustra , "Next thing I see is a bright flash, and a VERY loud "POP! CRACKLE!" sound. The current went in one arm and out the other, both arms and my chest tensed up so hard I thought I was having a heart attack. It was maybe a 1/2 second long, but it felt like about 10 seconds, before I broke the connection."

OMG! x 2.

I thought touching something live on the circuit board of my LP12 was bad enough. Took an effort to pull my hand free, and yes time seemed to slow quite dramatically.

I beg anybody reading never to mess with live electronics unless you are thoroughly experienced and have access to a well lit child and pet free work area PLUS superhuman powers of concentration.

Even then, please be careful out there - it's only audio, and we're only audiophiles. 

A number of yrs ago I was doing "surgery" on one of my inverted done tweeters (very delicate work).  I was using a surgical scalpel, I needed to switch to fine tweezers and put the scalpel blade up in my left shirt pocket.  Anyways I reach down with my left hand for some reason and drive the full length of the blade into the meat  at the base of my thumb.OMG!!!!! to say the least!  I still have an L shaped (or an upside down 7) 2cm scar to prove it.

@drkingfish, surgical scalpel?

That was beyond brave.

So easy to over focus on one area ('it's got to be perfect') and forget that you have a scalpel in your hand, or a soldering iron.

Back injuries are so ludicrously easy to inflict on yourself - and cause no end of discomfort afterwards. Those of you who are unfamiliar with back pain, please try and keep it that way. 

Yup, my amp kicked me in the lower back one day and put me out of commission for about 2.5 months. But I got even by putting that sucker to work daily for 2.5 months. 

I agree with the point that the major of teh accident can occur inside the home.
Proper care is required when dealing with electric switches.

well I heard that almost all accidents occur with in 5 miles of home................so I moved  :)

I suffered a psychotic break when some Audiogoner with two posts revived a twenty year old thread, everyone started posting like it had been active the whole time, and now going mad trying to understand who is the fizzle bomber.

I got hurt pretty bad when I heard what a really good system could do. Well, it hurt my feelings, anyway.