Your worst gaffes


I thought it'd be fun to share our embarrassing experiences, or gaffes we committed with our equipment over the years. I hope that they all ended up ok, but feel free to share those that didn't as well... I'll start.

I had an outpatient foot surgery last year, and they administered a strong painkiller intravenously, and gave me a Vicodin on top of it after I came out of a full-body sedation. When I got home, I felt so good that I had a few shots of vodka, at which point I felt REALLY good. Well, of course I couldn't wait to listen to my records so I proceeded to my listening room and grabbed a record. Not a good idea!

Completely unaware of what I was doing, I lowered the lift lever before I cued up the tonearm so that it dropped onto the record. After a brief confusion, my heart stopped! Luckily, my Lyra Delos appeared to come out unscathed! Did I rest relieved? Of course not. I proceeded to "see" how far the tonearm dropped and whether it could have possibly damaged the cartridge by holding it with my shaky fingers with the lever down. I dropped it twice more...

A few hours later, a few vodkas later, and enough time to contemplate my stupidity, I was listening again, and thought that the anti-skating device on my Classic looked weird as it made the fishing line too taut (as it's supposed to do). As the record was playing, I flicked it for a reason I'll never understand. It sent the tonearm flying across the record with a loud scratch and off the platter. How it did not hit the side of the platter completely destroying the cantilever, I'll never know. I think what saved the cartridge was the fact that flicking the anti-skating mechanism literally sent the tonearm flying rather than drag it across the record, and that it was barely a minute into the first song. The craziest thing was that my Delos again came out unscathed! No bent cantilever, no damage to the stylus. Almost a year later, I still cannot believe it and count myself very, very lucky.

The next day I decided to read the discharge papers. In caps, it stated that the sedation significantly affects judgment, perception, and coordination for hours after the surgery. Oh, really you idiot! Lesson learned...
actusreus
I considered buying a used Delos from an Audiogon member. I think his moniker was Actusreus.
Play nice, Grbluen. I've never put my Delos up for sale, nor do I intend to in the future. This baby will retire in my system, or will be traded in for a new Lyra through the Lyra trade-in program.

Well, looks like no A-gon member has ever committed any gaffes. I guess the topic is too relaxed, and doesn't have enough personal acrimony potential in it...Just read the Micro Seiki or TW AC-1 thread that's exploding. Wow.
Post removed 
Snap the cantilever off a brand new $5000 cartridge while setting the VTF on a digital scale. No drugs involved, just a slip, a whoops followed by lots of cussing.
Ok, ok. I've allowed family into my home while I was away for awhile, and ended up with my Grado platinum's cantilever transformed into a miniature pretzel.
One of my worst and most expensive gaffes is late one night I was trying do an A/B listening comparison between 2 amps and in the midst of setting stuff up and going between gear I had forgotten that both amps were hooked up to the same speakers. I powered on both amps and played some music. I heard some weird noises from the speakers and before I could just everything down the damage was done. I managed to blow the fuses on one amp. Blow out the woofers on the speakers. The other amp was damaged severely. I don't remember all the damage but the list was long.
My friends wife once told him:Your System has to go or I will leave you
He said: Good Bye
To her.
I have to invite him regularly into Restaurants to keep him alive, he is a lousy
cook...
I don't feel so all alone now. Minor by comparison. Recently, I couldn't understand why things were sounding so "mono". Listening to a well known CD. Shocked to hear part of the music MIA. Almost like 1 track of a 4 track mix was no longer being picked up. Ran a diagnostic CD. No right, no left, just center. Changed CDP. Same thing! Belatedly, figured out I'd connected my right and left channel amp inputs to pre-amp output 1's right channel and to the right channel of pre-amp output 2. "Living Mono". Things sounding much better now with things corrected. Lesson learned? Go by sight, not by touch.
Paying 50% upfront for a pair of speakers that took 7 months to receive in damaged condition.
I blew a driver in my ProAc response 3's trying out several amps. I switched back to a Sunfire signature (no power switch) without unplugging it. What a terrible noise! I was so mad at myself I kicked a baby gate that was set up outside my room down the steps which made a couple nice holes in the wall going downstairs. Then I kicked it again when I got down the steps. (wish I had shoes on) I wasn't happy about fixing any of the damage. Makes me laugh now though. I'm smiling as type.
Syntax,
That sounds so extreme. Would you be able to share more details why the ultimatum was made?
Letting my brother in law change record on my Maplenoll ariadne signature. I ended up with a great record with a horrible scratch and a rebuild of my airy 3.
10-16-12: Jp1208
Paying 50% upfront for a pair of speakers that took 7 months to receive in damaged condition.

Care to elaborate?
Tpreaves, I paid roughly 3k upfront, waited 3 months longer than promised for delivery and the builder shipped them with a gouge in one side and a pit or hole in one baffle. One speaker developed a small bubble in the vaneer and has now cracked open. On delivery the bases that hold the "VERY" expensive crossover section were snapped in half due to a flimsy single box packing job. My 8 year old could have done a better job.
The worst part about this is that the builder wanted to fight with me about a ups claim that "I" was to file and then give him status once I heard back from ups. The gouge and pit mark were shipped this way without my knowledge and had nothing to do with shipping.
I guess I call this a gaffe on my part for trusting this individual.
Selling a pair of Heil AMTs at a garage sale for $25.
Getting rid of 72 sunburst stratocaster.
Buying a pair of white van speakers for $150 and spending 2 years trying to upgrade them. The AMTs helped.
The worst gaffe I have seen however is someone who posted under a different username than what they thought they were using at the time. Pretty embarrasing and they had the posts deleted immediately to cover up the gaffe which isn't right since it was a vendor making the gaffe. Funny thing is, it was the same person who sold me the speakers!!!!
Post removed 
Post removed 
Back in the 80s, an audiophile friend and I each acquired Decca London cartridges.  Being tinkerers, we early on discovered that one could remove the "lid" from the cartridge body and thereby gain access to its innards.  There were two little screw adjustments thus made accessible. Independent of each other, and using our own systems as a guide, we played with the screw adjustments to "optimize" the sound, and each of us did reach his own version of Nirvana.  It was only several months later, when we got together to compare results, that we realized that each of us had turned a perfectly good stereo cartridge into a mono cartridge, by fussing with its adjustments.  Maybe this was an early demonstration of the benefits of mono listening in the stereo era. I do recall we laughed at each other and at ourselves.

Post removed 
Trowing away a Garrard 301 as junk and selling a 401 for $75 when I didn't know any better many years ago.

The German have this saying: ''Wein, Weiber und Gesang'' ( wine,

women and music). I don't like wine but well Serbian plum brandy.

Wheil enjoying my brandy and music I probably fall a sleep but

somehow wake up in bed by the women next door. Sober I would

never dare to try.

Buying a pair of speakers from a manufacturer I like only to find them so inefficient I had to swapped out all my amps or finally swap out the speakers
Selling my Magneplanar Tympani T-I's and replacing them with a pair of Fulton J's. Didn't take me long to realize THAT was a mistake! It's okay---I have a pair of restored T-IV's now.
More to discover