Your audiophile embarassment

Oh geez I forgot about this one-
Bending the cantilever on a moving coil cartidge while cleaning the turntable- buying another - then breaking the new one two months later while changing records! No more moving coil cartridges!

 

Spending $2,000 on a pair of speakers only to find I prefer the ones I previously spent only $400 on.

 

...probably, my rather unkempt graveyard of CD-Rs

 

Getting away from collecting LP's to collecting trading cards

 

I just posted mine here: My Bose speakers

 

RIP Shure...

Im trembling.

 

I once got caught listening to a jazz 78 with an earhorn.

gf: "Umm what are you doing?"

me: "...nothin..."

gf: *walks away brushing her hair with a look of "this guys a maniac" in her eyes*

me: "Honey, I added oil to you car with the...earhorn...you said it needed oil.......ok....?...baby..?"

 

I always liked the 901s

 

This week, including most of today, I did 4 complete cartridge setups (protractor, magnifying glass, strained back, yelling at the kids...the whole bit x4) only to realize that I had reversed the channels coming from the output transformer. Remember to check the basics, kids! On the bright side, Zappa - One Size Fits All sounds great right now.

 

In my mid-twenties, I hooked up my Marantz 1060 integrated amp back up to see what it sounded like after not using it for a few years. I had it hooked up to Smaller Advent Loudspeakers with lamp cord wrapped around the screw on terminals on the speakers. After listening to it for a while, I was making adjustments to speaker placement with music playing when the right channel went out. I saw that the lamp cord ends on the right speaker had come loose from the speakers and was laying on the floor. I reconnected the lamp cord to the speaker and still no sound. I'm thinking that the positive and negative ends of the lamp cord were touching each other and messed up that channel of the amp. I felt bad and kind of stupid.

A short time later, I bought a third Smaller Advent Loudspeaker to try out the center channel output on my McIntosh C26 preamp and was planning to use the left power amp from the 1060 to power the center speaker. I don't remember if I got distracted or was on something, but when I didn't get any sound from that center channel I was retracing my steps and saw that when hooking it up I forgot to hook the lamp cord to the speaker terminals. They were on the floor with the positive and negative touching - again. Now the left channel amp didn't worked either. I could not believe that I did this twice!

I never felt so stupid about stereo related mistakes before or since. (But I never damaged a piece of gear after this.) I still feel mad at myself about this after all of these decades. (I usually let stuff go.) I guess it does not help that I still have it (along with the walnut cabinet) stored in my basement and see it from time to time.

 

Shure M91E was my first quality cartridge. Got it with a Dual 1219 back in my teens. A while back, I listened to some cassettes recorded using this cartridge. (They were Maxell UDs recorded on a Nakamichi 500.) I was amazed at how good they still sound.

(I'm a Grado fan, also.)

 

The M91ED is a terrific cart, I have a couple of them here. It's a classic mate to the 1219 too.

 

Well, I plan on actually putting that back in service once I find a reasonable replacement stylus? Any suggestions?

 

I'm pretty sure that mine was called M91E. I've wondered what the difference was.

Or maybe I am misremembering.

 

Simple stuff when having adult beverages and showing of your jams to a buddy, and realizing you didn't turn the mono button off after your last Duke Ellington trip. At least you can say "this next record is even better!"

 

Dude....

 

I bought Bose 901's. Paid retail price for them.

 

I believe the M91E stylus was bonded and the M91ED stylus was nude. The bodies are internally the same, and based on the V15 Type II.

 

The JICO-made EVG PM3136DE that sells for under $20 on eBay is shockingly good.

 

lol

 

Taking a system to bits to find out why my receiver was not working...and I mean bits.....only to find a few days later the "sleep" button on the remote control that I never knew existed.....it bought to mind that old saw "did you read the instructions"?

 

thanks!

 

I think you need to be proclaimed HERO OF THE STEVE HOFFMAN FORUM!

 

If anyone is interested, Shahanian Acoustics is still located in Patchogue, LI, NY. It is run by Dick's son Vaskin.

 

A dome tweeter on a pair of Paradigm Esprits had been partially pushed in by someone in our store. It was a listening room toward the back, I was alone, so I got on my knees and sealed around the tweeter with my lips, then created vacuum (okay, sucked the tweeter) and straightened it right up. When I arose, I discovered an attractive lady had been standing in the doorway waiting for me to finish. I blush easily, and worse when I feel myself blushing. I could feel the red. With my fingers, even.