What has been your worst transgression of the mysterious WAF code? I'll begin, throwing myself on the mercy of the court:
Three days ago was the Thanksgiving Holiday. My wife prepared a beautiful, traditional meal including fresh roasted turkey, stuffing, gravy, etc. It took hours and we could have fed an army. After the meal, the fridge was packed with delicious leftovers which we enjoy for days afterwards. It's our favorite holiday and we really stretch it out nicely.
On holidays, I like to listen to my music and of course, this entails temporarily converting the living room into a Man-cave and doing whatever I can for the best sound – you know, moving the speakers away from the wall, moving the comfy chair into the sweetspot, using pillows to diffuse and dampen reflections, etc.
So, about 24 hours after the feast, I went to the fridge to get the ingredients for my famous turkey sandwich... but something didn't smell good in there. That's right, can you say "Man-cave dismantling checklist?"
Someone forgot to turn the noisy fridge back on. My wife worked for hours preparing the meal and organizing the leftovers, and Mr. Audiophile here ruins days worth of great food and effort with the flip of a switch... or should I say, lack thereof.
I watched uncomfortably as she emptied the contents of a warm fridge into the trash. Ouch.
OK, is your violation of the WAF code as bad? Please share your worst transgression – don't leave me alone out here!
The worst story I know of didn't happen to me, but to a customer of mine when I ran a hi-end store years ago. A guy got into an argument with his wife and she ripped his SME tonearm off his SOTA and threw it at him. I was able to salvage the tonearm. But, not the marriage.
If not, did the Shumann Resonators make your system sound better?
We all know that EMF radiation can affect audio signals. I found a very visual study of this on an unbelievably cool video made by NASA scientists. Check it out.
Ouch! Rockadanny, that made me grimace... because, and I'm not making this up... Before I bought my audio rack, when our household's WAFUCT (Wife Acceptance Factor Unified Code Treatise) dictated that gear should be behind closed doors, I drilled ventilation and cable holes in the back of our 400 lb. armoire. Eight one-inch diameter holes into thick Indonesian hardwood did the trick. This large piece of furniture was my wife's before we even met. I dare not ask what it cost. She's never mentioned it, or never noticed.
Wanting to place my CDP (tubed) and preamp (tubed) in the monstrous TV cabinet prompted me to perform some cabinet modifications for better air flow on the sly ... While my wife was away for a few days I went into deconstruction mode: 1. I removed the glass which was in the door where the gear would be placed for front air flow. Glass vs. no glass = no big deal I was sure. 2. There were already large slots in the back of the cabinet but I enlarged them for better rear air flow – who’d notice, right? 3. Then I drilled four rows of a dozen holes each (1/2” bit), staggered, in the top of the cabinet, again for air flow. With the large front trim you could barely notice them so I painstakingly painted the inside walls of each hole with black paint and a Q-tip. Now they were virtually undetected to casual observers. When she returned she asked about the missing glass but was unconcerned. She never sticks her head inside the cabinet so did not notice the (somewhat sloppily) enlarged slots in the back. I think it was about six months later when I heard a scream from the living room. “Argh! What the hell did you do!? Drilled holes in our cabinet!? You ****ing drilled ****ing holes in our ****ing three thousand dollar cabinet!? What the **** is wrong with you!?” It took several days of explanation before she calmed down. I don’t think she forgave me, even to this day. I think she finally just wanted me to stop talking about audio and shut the hell up.
OMG, Jarobertson... you just stirred an embarrassing memory: I did exactly the same thing a few years ago! I must have blocked it out. My wife loves her sleep, especially during a certain, ahem, time of the... well, you know. When someone is already crabby from rogue hormone surges, it seems that being launched out of bed by a 95dB blast of rock and roll does not help the situation at all, despite the fact that my system produced that 95dB SPL without distortion or loss of musicality and PRAT. Go figure.
Alonski, this may not be as bad as yours or Davehrab's, but I'll contribute. One night my wife had a terrible headache and was nauseated and just all around felt like crap. After attending to her for a while and finally getting her settled in to bed, I wanted to relax and put on a record or two. Since my listening room is adjacent to the bedroom (although separated by a full bath), I decided to hook up my headphone amp to the preamp for some personal rocking out. I plugged the left and right outputs from the preamp into the headphone amp and cranked the left and right channel input levels as well as the master volume on the preamp to get a solid listening level. I queued up a record, sat down, and when the music started through the headphones suddenly I felt an enormous rumble in my chest and through the floor. It turns out that this moron forgot to unplug the secondary outputs on the preamp which feed into the subwoofer. It was by far the loudest that the sub has ever been pushed. Needless to say there was a total WAF failure at hand.
Liz, ... imagine a cold snowy night.... SUDDENLY, an axe crashes a small hole in your door... THEN, a crazed face peers through.. and say's ... "It's DONiiieeeeeee" HA!!
Elizabeth, HA!!! I would send Don Rickles over for a visit, if only I knew were y....... Hey, you got anything cheap to sell so I can mail you some money, .. to your home address!!?? HA
Buscis2, as long as she still has some bloom and not too much attack, I think her focus on the sweet spot is a good thing... unless you're not being invited to spend time there yourself and have to stay off-axis.
Buscis2, as long as she still has some bloom and not too much attack, I think her focus on the sweet spot is a good thing... unless you're not being invited to spend time there yourself and have to stay off-axis.
Amusing, and painful all at the same time. Those would be the hallmarks of good comedy. While I haven't been in the same situation, I thank you for sharing:)
Elizabeth, As one of the few women I've ever seen on these threads, you seem about as crazy as the rest of us! Do you have a HAF akin to our WAF? Any funny stories from your life as an audiophile?
BTW--Thanks for the tweak advice... where do you get Ferrite crystals and what are you doing, taping them to the power cord? Will this require any chanting or incense?
Daverhab, The stakes have indeed been raised. If my wife had to take an ice-cold shower due to my audio habit, I bet I would be the one taking cold showers, probably for a month, if you get my meaning...
BTW, I have an electrician coming over in an hour to attempt to fix a noise issue that crosses over all my dedicated lines. Your explanation nails my situation exactly and will help me convey the problem to him in a way that will seem like I actually know something. Really good timing. Thanks!
I’ll see Your “refrigerator” and raise you a “hot water heater” ... I like you seem to enjoy the benefits of unplugging the refrigerator ... also micro wave and various other appliances with switching power supplies that create DC offset that pollutes the electrical circuits
Noise on the 3rd wire safety can also infect your system as all the neutrals (including your dedicated audio run) are bonded together in the main panel box and then the neutrals and all the 3rd wire safety’s are tied together in the main panel box before being routed to the House Ground rod just outside your service entrance
That is where the cross coupling can take place and the noise is then picked up by your dedicated line’s neutral that is bonded to the rest of the noisy neutrals from the through out the rest of the house at the neutral BUS Bar in main panel ... once coupled to your dedicated line the noise will be passed back to all your equipment's power supplies and finally gets injected back into your equipment's sensitive digital and analog circuits
It takes 3 things for noise to propagate ... (1) a source generating the noise (2) a conduit for the noise to travel along to destination and (3) a receiver (your equipment) to capture and reproduce the noise ... eliminate any one element in the chain ( source ..conduit..or receiver ) and the noise goes away
Neither dedicated lines or moving noisy appliances to opposite phase in panel box is totally effective at removing all the noise present and the power conditioner I’ve tried were only partially successful
Not only am I the only resident on the Transformer at the pole on the street but get 121V to 123Volts all day all year around ...
I’ve tried Tice Power Block and Titan ... AP 116 Applied Power ... early Bybee rare earth ... complete array of MIT stuff and a Exact Power EP15 ... none were totally effective and it seemed unplugging noisy appliances was just as beneficial
I do my critically listening on Sunday afternoons when wife visits grand kids and the power on the grid is much better due to local industry being shut down
I still find it advantageous for sound quality to unplug noisy appliances and have been doing so for years
I’ve gotten away with forgetting to plug refrigerator back in numerous time with only the loss of some ice bream but the one she’ll never forgive me for was when on a Sunday I unplugged hot water heater and forgot to plug back in and on Monday she had to take ice cold shower before work
I remedied the situation with a nice piece of jewelry from Ebay ... a “Mood Ring” that works very well
When she is in a good mood the ring glows a brilliant emerald green ... and when she is in a bad mood it leaves a red mark in the middle of my fore head
Peter, thanks, I'm glad not to be the only one willing to share anecdotes like ours. The embarrassment fades quickly and what remains is a funny story from the front lines of our obsession. I'm looking forward to hearing more such stories as this thread makes its rounds.
With Viridian doing his maid, losing his gear and then stealing Danlib's wife... anything can happen here!
With the money you have invested in your system, (nice BTW) I think your next upgrade/tweak is a new fridge. A solid investment in you sonic quest and probably the highest WAF tweak you'll ever do.
Let's see, that's two responses from members who think I'm an idiot for turning off a loud refrigerator when I'm doing my critical listening, and one guy who was disturbed by my story.
Maybe an update is in order: The fridge is still loud and I will continue to turn it off because, wait for it... it's loud. Can anyone relate?
As for my wife, she's great. Took it in stride and still loves me very much despite my oversight.
This thread was intended to amuse us all with the foibles and antics of the modern audiophile... maybe you can help.
11-27-11: Viridian I got caught screwing the maid right next to the stereo. Predictably, the wife got the hifi in the divorce. But I got a damn good maid.
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