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Thread: Hi-Fi Cock-ups. What's Your Biggest Disaster?

  1. #31
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Middlesex, UK

    Posts: 4,481
    I'm Alex.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Beobloke View Post
    Setting the output stage bias on a 1980s B&O Beomaster 5000 receiver - multimeter probe slipped, touched another component and bang - output transistor fried.

    In my defence, you do need three very small hands to do this with ease and I know of better people than me who have done exactly the same thing!
    About a decade ago I did something similar with one of my Quad 303's, which are very robust. I remember having to replace the series transistor in the power supply. Come of think of it, this is the 303 running at this moment, sounds great.

    Forgot to mention, as the meter probe slipped, there was a large flash / spark, as it shorted out the main DC supply, nice.
    Spendorman

  2. #32
    Join Date: Jan 2008

    Location: gone

    Posts: 11,519
    I'm gone.

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    I let a digital cable attached to my luvverly Theta Gen V DAC dangle against the speaker posts of an on AVI Lab Series amp - 200wpc.
    BANG and lots of smoke.
    DAC was dead as a dodo.
    Amp was fine, though.

    Bought a Sony PS-X50 turntable on eBay, fully aware that it was 110V and I needed to connect the 240/110V converter that the seller also supplied.
    When the box arrived I was so excited I forgot about the voltage thing and plugged the deck straight into the UK mains, leaving the converter undiscovered in the box.
    Damn thing never worked again.
    Last edited by jandl100; 22-02-2018 at 07:55.
    .

  3. #33
    Join Date: Jun 2010

    Location: Essex, United Kingdom

    Posts: 899
    I'm givingyouaprettygoodclue.

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    Cartridges. Installing a new Benz while "relaxing" with a couple of beers, on reflection the bent cantilever was an entirely predictable outcome. Further back, in the '80s I stored my copies of Hi-Fi Answers on a shelf above my deck. One day they leapt off and flattened a Grado which was playing underneath.

    A facetious answer would be buying a Rotel RB970. Dreadful, it lasted two weeks before I got rid of it.

    Pete

  4. #34
    Join Date: Aug 2017

    Location: Hertfordshire, U.K.

    Posts: 298
    I'm Graham.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Shovel_Knight View Post
    I once sold a good amplifier very cheaply because I thought it didn’t work.

    Later I realized that it didn’t have the links between its pre and power sections fitted...
    I did the same thing - gave away a NAD C370 that had an intermittent left channel. All it needed was a new connector between one of the pre-amp boards and the main amp board, which NAD fixed for free.
    GrahamS - It's not what you hear that counts, it's what you think you hear........

    Present Kit: NAD 326BEE, NAD C515BEE CD player, JVC QL-7 DD turntable, JVC Tonearm, Shure M97Ve, Audio Technica AT95EX, Pickering V15, JVC Z1E, Wharfedale Diamond 230s, Visual Rio interconnects and My Ears.

  5. #35
    Join Date: Sep 2009

    Location: Bournemouth

    Posts: 5,266
    I'm Dan.

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    Frying a NAD 3020i

    Forgot to take the bi wire links out on a pair of Celestion F30 Bi wired with the links in shorted the amp Opps but the speakers survived though.....
    Receiver
    Marantz 2225
    CD Transport & DAC & PSU
    Marantz 6005 , Beresford Caiman , Paul Hynes SR4
    Turntable
    KAM DDX 1000 with Goldring G800 Cartridge
    Loudspeakers
    Mordaunt Short M10

  6. #36
    Join Date: Aug 2010

    Location: Torquay, Devon.

    Posts: 5,684
    I'm Shane.

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    Had a Little Dot II+ headphone amp. That had the famous 'switch on' flash in the larger tubes. This was inherent and some batches did this. So you had to switch the unit on without headphones plugged in. One day I completely forgot about the quirk had my beloved Grado's plugged in.... The little rouge popped the left Grado driver and shot it dead. Felt like taking my anger out on a baby doll

    S.

  7. #37
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Wakefield west yorkshire

    Posts: 1,930
    I'm James.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pigmy Pony View Post
    I once threw up on my amplifier, and it went in through the vents on the top. When I finally plucked up the courage to turn it on a few days later, everything worked, but it gave off a smell like the bottom of a wheely bin.

    Put me right off Chinese food, and 40 years later, I'm still not keen.
    that made me chuckle
    novafidelity x40 music server/pre/dac, Arcam A39, roksan k3 power amp,Monitor Audio Monitor 50, Dali spektor 1, van damme interconnects and speaker cable, roskan k3 CD player

  8. #38
    Join Date: Feb 2008

    Location: Middlesex, UK

    Posts: 4,481
    I'm Alex.

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    Quote Originally Posted by sumday View Post
    My dad had a cat which had a habit of sleeping on top of his quite expensive Panasonic VCR.
    This brute of a machine cost over 600 quid in the early 90s...a huge amount and even in standby was the warmest perch in his unmodernised terrace home.
    It stayed in standby....and hence stayed warm when the moggy decided to piss its bed.

    My dad said the smell, when he returned from work many hours later, was beyond description....and lingered in the house for days.

    The insurance did not cover it.

    Something like this, but Tiddles never used it as a toilet:

    Need a bigger amplifier by A60man, on Flickr
    Spendorman

  9. #39
    Join Date: Dec 2016

    Location: Kent TN8

    Posts: 136
    I'm Graham.

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    Back in the 70's,strobe lights were a fad,a pal of mine drilled some big holes into a TT platter and mounted a 100 watt lightbulb behind to make a basic strobe,it worked quite well,so decided I would do the same with an unused deck I had,turns out Garrad 401's are quite expensive now.

    Also back in 1986 we moved from a flat to where we lived now,so ditched a load of stuff I hadn't used for years,so 2 SME 3009's were skipped.

    Analogue. Basis signature 2200,Basis Vector 4.Koetsu Red,Koetsu SUT,NVO SPA 11.
    Digital. Denon 2900,Jolida FX 11
    Amp. Pathos Logos,Minidsp dirac 22A.
    Speakers. Amphion Xenon.
    Airlink CBS 2000 bps

  10. #40
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

    Posts: 37,773
    I'm Martin.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GJO View Post
    Also back in 1986 we moved from a flat to where we lived now,so ditched a load of stuff I hadn't used for years,so 2 SME 3009's were skipped.

    I always wondered who it is throwing away perfectly serviceable gear. When my mate worked at the tip he would come home with mint equipment quite regularly.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

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