Acts of Gross Stupidity Confession Time
Just when I thought the foolishness of my earlier years was over I knocked an inner record sleeve off a shelve behind my turntable. This hit my turntable arm sideways and ripped the diamond off my beloved Koetsu Urushi Blue. Hopefully when its safe enough to go to the post office again I can get it sent off to be repaired.
I've been an audiophile for over 40 years and in my time I have been responsible for many murderous acts towards moving coil cartridges, here's some of my grimiest moments to cheer you up during these dark times:-
Twenty years back I had (have) a Clearaudio Accurate MC, this sat on the end of an SME V on my Pink Triangle Anniversary. The turntable had a very light platter and precise spindle size so often I would have to apply a little pressure to get records on it. Releasing these records would require a bit of care such as a slow back and fore movement. Sometimes the platter would stay attached upon lifting and you had to be very careful to let it down to avoid damaging the bearing. One day I had a record that refused to come away from the platter. I then had a brainwave and found I could get the corner of a record sleeve under a portion of the record, by holding the vinyl and rotating the platter and sleeve I could get the vinyl to move upwards. Things were going well for about Ύ of a rotation until after a short period of friction I saw the cantilever of the cartridge fly across the platter, this was caused by the other end of the sleeve coming up against the cartridge. I do remember losing the power of speech for a couple of hours after this.
Previously to this I had Lyra Titan i which has an open body. At the time I was experimenting with cleaning records. A couple hours after cleaning one I gave it a play. Although the record appeared dry there was still moisture in the groove and after a few weeks this resulted in the cartridge coil rusting. I still have the rusting body as a trophy.
Around the Clearaudio Accurate time I switched to a Denon DL103 for a change. We were hosting a fourth birthday party for my son. The guests were half down the garden enjoying the sun and having a chat. I returned to the kitchen at the front of the house to sort out some food and drinks. While there I stuck on a record and continued with my chores. After about 15 minutes I heard this horrid sound of a cartridge being dragging across a record. When I rushed into the front room I found a 4 year looking rather guilty and a cartridge with no cantilever. I was a little angry as you might imagine and the 4 year old rushed off in tears. This was followed by the wife giving me the third degree for upsetting one of the guests children. As a warning to all never play records in the presence of young children since they are attracted to turntables like fly's.
NB
Only my pocket, pride and one small child was hurt during the making of this confession.
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Originally Posted by Macca
