jtnfoley Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 NAD 114 pre, 2240 amp, old as dirt technics CD player, all in front of a pair of late model CW1 (December 1985 IIRC.) No sound comes out. Odd, says I. Oh... the amp is off. Click... WHAT THE F@$K!!!!!!!!!!!!! I scream as I run back to the stack. See, my brother, who should have the sense to leave things alone OR to understand the imact of having a real component system, was trying to listen to a CD and left the volume at about 6.I should have had the sense to remember that I did not leave half the components on and half off! With only 40WPC, the cornies are listenable in the 2-3 range, and [python]five is right out! [/python] Both dogs fled the house. The Great Dane did not touch the floor thru two sets of stairs and into the back yard. No apparent damage to anything... I assume that anyone with a component system and a family has a similar story to tell? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldenough Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 No apparent damage to anything... I assume that anyone with a component system and a family has a similar story to tell?Yes, but my story involves a SUNDAY morning 7am, and outside on my deck. I have yet to be allowed to forget it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtnfoley Posted August 3, 2009 Author Share Posted August 3, 2009 It was a Sunday morning, as it happens, but was in the livinroom at 10:00ish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldenough Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Sure puts the fright on you don't it?? I don't know if you have heard Tom Cochran's "Life is a Highway" it opens at full blast. I was back indoors after powering-up the system to listen to the morning news on the radio, not realizing the amp had been left on cd/aux, the cd player will automatically play when powered on. It was LOUD, never did figure out who had turned the volume waaay up the night before. Our neighbours are great people, but the lady of the house is a self confessed Grump any time before 10 o'clock in the morning, she was NOT a happy camper. We laugh about it now of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bliss53 Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 My tube amp has a warm up period before it clicks on, this has allowed me to catch myself and adjust the volume knob. My dogs are safe so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coytee Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 I've told this before but will do again! I was in college. Freshman year. I had my system in my dorm (LaScalas, Yamaha CR-2040, various other goodies) I happen to be an early to bed, early to rise person. Always have been, always will be. In freshman dorm however, seems 99.999999999% of them were the other way around, staying up until 3:00 every evening and sleeping in until past noon. I made comments about trying to at least, act like human beings but that fell on deaf (and probably less than sober) ears. To add insult to injury, they actually had the audacity to ask us "morning guys" if we could keep it quiet in the mornings, since we were of course, disrupting their sleep (recovery) patterns. Well.... I had enough!! I pulled out FLoyd, DSOTM and put it on the turntable. I set the needle down right where those dang blang chimes start playing. Oh, did I mention that I had a timer handy? I set the timer about 3:45 a.m. on a Saturday night. I put the volume at about 2:00 on my 120 watts x2 receiver (complete with 3bx, boom box and eq) Since my hometown was only 15 miles away, I went home for the weekend. Beyond my wildest expectations, there was he!! to pay on my return Sunday afternoon. Seems my little ploy worked like a charm. Those dang chimes came in with a deafening roar about 3:45 just as cued up. After about 5 minutes, the timer turned things off so it all went quiet. By the time they awoke, figured out what was going on.... ran down THREE flights of stairs to get the resident boss, the system shut down. Yeah.... they were mad as hornets when I got back however, they finally got my point that it's a two way street with respect! BTW, the picture is of actual system in the room Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtnfoley Posted August 3, 2009 Author Share Posted August 3, 2009 You could blame your sound man... looks like a real animal! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RT FAN Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 My then girlfriend, now wife had a similiar experience with my stereo one morning after I had left to play golf. I had a Sony ES 500 Int Amp which had a Tape Loop function, she tried to play a cd and turned up the volume/attenuator knob so that she could hear some cross channel bleed. Without lowering the volume, she then turned off the Tape Loop switch. We are talking about 85W per channel full bore into a pair of Klipsch Chorus II's in a studio apartment. Now, I was not there to witness the actual levitation of my wife, but apparently it was around two feet off the ground. [] I wonder what the actual DB output was at that moment? She said it took 10 minutes for her heart to stop racing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russ69 Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 If you ever had any experience with kilowatt amps, you learn that lesson fairly quickly. RULE NUMBER ONE: Turn the volume knob down to the stop, then turn on the power. It's a good habit to get into. Thanx, Russ Or you can do what my brother did and blow out your drivers at turn on. His ribbon drivers looked like confetti when the power switched on (quite an expensive mistake, they were unrepairable). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted August 3, 2009 Moderators Share Posted August 3, 2009 Funny stories, I am sitting here laughing because I did it last week to my wife and couldn't stop laughing which made it worse ! [:$] It scared me too. I wanted her to sit and listen to something, she sits on the sofa while I get it ready then I turn it on and sit, after a few seconds I hear nothing ? I turn up the volume a couple of times, I can't read the number on the front of the receiver from where I sit, then I realize I never had it set to CD. I press the CD button and about 25 WPC rushes to the MWM's [] from 15' away thats a whole lot of power for them, we both jumped and as I look over at her she had bounced off the sofa then was going up the back of it when I finally was able to hit mute. I could not stop laughing, she looked at me and screamed something I can't repeat here ! A few minutes later she was laughing, I think I jumped as high as her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksonbart Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 I hate that, at least you have a brother to blame it on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hifi jim Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 I was hosting a house party during my freshman year of college and was using a small Nakamichi TA-1 receiver to drive my kg4s. For the first half of the evening the house was rocking just fine. After the jug of cheap rum disappeared, things started to get noisy... that is the system seemed to be getting louder. I walked into the room containing the speakers to find my friend with a sh!t-eating grin on his face and bobbing his head to the music. I thought, "Holy crap, that is the loudest and most distorted I have ever heard my system!" Looking at the receiver I noticed Charles had gotten overly ambitious with the volume control which was now pegged! I quickly lowered the volume and did a quick check to discover the midrange was now toast. A replacement was thankfully still covered under warranty, but not available in its original white color. Now, whenever I remove the grill and see that one lone black driver... I think of Charles and that jug of cheap rum he brought over that night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gigbyt Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 So thats what that sound was!! I'm in plaistow, nh and i think i heard it loud and clear,LOL[H] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Klipsch are tough...... I once was listening and messing around with a SE 6BQ5 console amp converted into a breadboard project, hooked up to my Cornwalls. I was using a output transformer with a tag strip mounted on them, with B+, primary, secondary, and common terminal points all along this tag strip. I was using clip-leads to connect the speakers. I slipped the speaker positive clip-lead, and tagged the B+ terminal with about 300 volts DC on it.........BOOM!! I thought for sure the speaker had at least one blown driver, but it didn't break anything. Lucky me...........seemed like a cannon shot without the crack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skonopa Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Well, I guess every once in a while, you gotta blow those cobwebs out of those horns, eh? [] Just hear some 200 watts/channel going through a pair of RF-7s! A while back, had some clown across the street decided he needed to crank up his car stereo while sitting in the driveway and assult pretty much everybody on this end of the street with his incredibly poor taste in music. Of course, it also had to occur on one of these nice spring days when everybody pretty much has thier windows open, while I was sitting there eating some lunch and trying to watch some TV before heading out to enjoy that day at the river. Decided enough was enough and queued up some of my usual heavy metal and cranked this system up as much as the B&K amp can take it. Yeah, nothing like hearing Sonata Arctica's Reckoning Night at near concert levels from across the street, especially track #5 "Don't Say a Word!". A particualiarly heavy number where the band is pretty much playing full balls-to-the-wall. I wish I had a camera for the look I got from that dude from across the street! My next door neighbr came out of his house just busting out laughing! Even he couldn't believe just how loud this thing got, not to mentiion it did not distort one iota! I think that dude across the street got the mesaage because he did end up turning his car stereo down immediatly after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike stehr Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 Yeah, some neighbors a few places down have been playing their annoying ringy subwoofer real loud the last two months......well, really up to about a 3 weeks ago. They inspired me to find Mackie FR2500 for my SVS 16/46 CS subwoofers. They give some decent bottom end with my LaScalas. I've been torturing the poor souls with the likes of Lustmord. They have pretty much given up. I rarely hear them play their stereo anymore, which used to be everyday, all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators dtel Posted August 4, 2009 Moderators Share Posted August 4, 2009 nothing like hearing Sonata Arctica's Reckoning Night at near concert levels from across the street, especially track #5 "Don't Say a Word!". A particualiarly heavy number where the band is pretty much playing full balls-to-the-wall. I wish I had a camera for the look I got from that dude from across the street! Now that is really funny, when you say something is a particualiarly heavy number, it must be unbelievable considering this is from a serious metal head like you. [H] [] I am definitely officially old, I sound like my dad ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HudsonValleyNoah Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 Well, I guess every once in a while, you gotta blow those cobwebs out of those horns, eh? Just hear some 200 watts/channel going through a pair of RF-7s! A while back, had some clown across the street decided he needed to crank up his car stereo while sitting in the driveway and assult pretty much everybody on this end of the street with his incredibly poor taste in music. Of course, it also had to occur on one of these nice spring days when everybody pretty much has thier windows open, while I was sitting there eating some lunch and trying to watch some TV before heading out to enjoy that day at the river. Decided enough was enough ... I think that dude across the street got the mesaage because he did end up turning his car stereo down immediatly after that. Good grief! Same here - damn stupid booming car subwoofers. Droning away at 10 AM on a beautiful Saturday morning. When I had enough, I opened my windows and cranked up the RF-7's and RF-63's and RF-5's and that RC-64 all in 7-channel stereo mode with an Onkyo Integra M-508 and a Yamaha RX-v2500 and plugged my ears and pegged the meters on the 508, I walked out of the HT room and closed the door behind me. I went out side to hear what it sounded like out there - OMG - like a great Rock Concert in the park. I let it rip for one track (4 minutes) and then shut it down... What do you think, the "neighbor" with the BoomBox car had shut off his car and gone indoors. I have not heard that BoomBox car since. But, I am ready to go for it again, when he is! Hey, Solid State SO has it's place! Rock On! Noah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islander Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 After all those stories, mine's pretty underwhelming, mostly because no Klipsch speakers were involved. When I first got my 500Wpc Yamaha power amp, I had a slight buzz from the speakers, later traced to poorly-shielded interconnects. I mentioned the problem at the nearby stereo shop, which was a Yamaha dealer, and they offered to check it out with their gear, since they'd never seen one and were very curious about it. The salesman picked out the receiver that was the nearest model to mine, and it was connected to a pair of Totem Wind speakers costing $9000 a pair. He put the amp on top, but instead of connecting it to the receiver's outputs, he connected it directly to the CD player's outputs, meaning there was no volume control in the chain, so all 500Wpc were going to the speakers. As soon as the music started, we all leaped to our feet, and got it stopped, but it was only "pretty darned loud", not deafening by any means. The room was very large, but just as significant was that the speakers' sensitivity was only 87dB, nowhere near what you'd get from a Klipsch speaker with the same power input. After hooking up the amp properly, they were impressed with the amp's clarity and power, and the buzzing I'd been hearing clearly with the La Scalas was completely inaudible with the Totem speakers. I wonder how much of the music's detail was also inaudible. After I got the amp back home, a couple of interconnect swaps solved the problem, and I later bought a second, matching, amp to bi-amp the JubScalas, so you know I really like it/them, and the JubScalas seem to like them, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtnfoley Posted August 5, 2009 Author Share Posted August 5, 2009 Words of warning to those who would out-thump street punks (with a house system, but most especially with a car system...) They may follow you home and releive you of your gear when you are not around. Happened to a friend's firechicken... lost $3k worth of "mine's bigger than yours" car audio gear AND had all his windows smashed (windsheild included) to add injury to insult. As for home protection, I have Very Big Dogs, High Speed Metal Projectors, and Family Members with lots of vowels in their names. [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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