Arts of Gross Stupidity – Confession Time

[Lawrence001]

This sounds like the start of a story?

I think I've seen it, Tales of the Unexpected?

Sent from my BKL-L09 using Tapatalk

[Filterlab]

Nothing bad has happened to my stuff in 35 years of audiophilia; I’m exceptionally careful though. I’ve no doubt that one day there’ll be a silly occurrence.

[WullieD20]

Ha ha..... good to know that we all appreciate being 'human' and accidents happen, regardless of being ultra careful... (Probably the reason for an accident in the first place..LOL).

I've only managed to 'kill' two carts that I can remember in over 50 years:

I was loaned a Denon DL110 from j7 (Audio Origami) to try in my LP12 / Zeta. After carrying out some basic maintenance and settings I went about fitting the cartridge and half way through the procedure a sneeze of enormous proportions arrived without any warning whatsoever...!!! I can't remember the details now, as it was so long ago, but needle...ss to say (see wot I did there... ) the whole cantilever assemble had disappeared. Off I went and purchased a new replacement to return to Johnnie (at a cost of £57.... see what they cost these days!!) and to this day I haven't heard a Denon DL110.

The worst incident came years later not long after purchasing my Dynavector XV1t when I reached behind the TT for some reason (dusting I think, as it was not playing at the time) and caught the rear of the arm with my sleeve. Unfortunately the arm was not locked in the rest and off it went at warp factor five across a disc that was sitting on the platter. It seemed to be a minor event as the arm stopped at its extremity without any force although I knew it had 'brushed' the LP. Upon inspection I could see that the tip was missing, although there was no damage whatsoever to the cantilever. Thanks to Johnnie (again) on that occasion for returning the cartridge to Dynavector to be rebuilt and a huge claim to my insurers who paid up without question, thankfully.

G.

[Mikeandvan]

Glad I'm not the only one guilty of this gross waste of money, once sent a 3 day old AT cart skidding across vinyl, needles to say it was f***ed, it cost around £400. Since then sworn I won't spend more than £200 on a cart, and always MM, so you can replace it, really cannot understand guys spending £1000s on MC, when they clearly cost little more than normal carts to produce, one of the great audiophile rip offs. Although I am now tempted by the Hana el (el or eh, the cheaper one!).

[jahsavage]

My water damaged Titan i

My cantilever less clearaudio Accurate

My stylus less Koetsu Blue

[Pete The Cat]

Circa 1982 a magazine (possibly Hi-Fi Answers) fell from a shelf and landed on my Grado F1+ while playing Beethoven's 6th. Funny the things you remember, it seemed like the end of the world at the time...

Pete

[Natara]

After an accident with a Dynavector 20x2 L which took out cantilever and coils I've since stuck with MM.

[Floyddroid]

Have you thought about going digital?

[Jac Hawk]

Luckily nothing for me since i started wearing big boy pants, when i was a kid up until 4 or 5 my dad was buying a new stylus a week just about, i remember his turntable started out on this low cabinet and slowly got moved higher and higher i suppose until the carnage ended lol.

[walpurgis]

when i was a kid up until 4 or 5 my dad was buying a new stylus a week just about

Remember Sapphire styli? They didn't last much longer. You could tell when they were worn out 'cos the music sounded all muffled, goodness knows what they were doing to the records.

The only stylus I remember breaking was a DL-103. It probably deserved it!