How Much Stuff Have You Destroyed in Your Audiophile Career?

garylkoh

WBF Technical Expert (Speakers & Audio Equipment)
Sep 6, 2010
5,599
225
1,190
Seattle, WA
www.genesisloudspeakers.com
My sister calls that "letting the magic smoke out". I once blew up a pair of 120,000uF capacitors. The smoke filled the 6,000 sq.ft. warehouse. We had to open the doors and air the place out for an hour. I still remember the smell and the look on her face.
 

vinylphilemag

WBF Founding Member
Apr 30, 2010
810
1
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Kelowna, BC
www.vinylphilemag.com
My sister calls that "letting the magic smoke out". I once blew up a pair of 120,000uF capacitors. The smoke filled the 6,000 sq.ft. warehouse. We had to open the doors and air the place out for an hour. I still remember the smell and the look on her face.

Letting the maginc smoke out is a very apt description!

I've (deliberately) blown up a few much smaller value caps, so a pair of 120,000µF caps must've one hell of a mess! :)
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
Naw nothing depressing about blowing stuff up - you must have brought your own depression to the thread. My contribution is at least a tube length of TO220 MOSFETs when I was developing my MOSFET output stage amplifier - the smell of the smoke FETs let out is still ingrained in my memory even now, almost 30 years later...

Richard, it was simply an innocent humorist comment.

* Carl, our OP (of this thread), is probably the most humorist member here at WBF.

__________________

Emoticon it, or emoticon not. ...I love life, real life, and when things blew up they are usually accidents that could have been prevented. We are careless sometimes, to our own consternation. ...And I experienced it myself first-hand in the past, at my very own and costly expense.
...For me it is depressing (not in a negative way, but realistic one), because it reminds me of my own human weaknesses. And when you are emotionally sensitive to the things you destroyed in your life (by careless actions), then it is totally and perfectly natural to say the things we sometimes say, because they're our own, and we are reminded by other's own 'accidents'.

Yes, like anyone else I blew up few tweeters in my years (from graphic EQs), and over-rode couple amps, but nothing compares to abandoning all your music and audio gear because you forgot of who you were, and couldn't handle the pressure that sometimes life brings with it. ...Simple human nature. Some can escape it, others can't.

Easily over $100,000 I blew up; radically!
 

JonFo

Well-Known Member
Jun 11, 2010
322
1
925
Big Canoe, GA
www.jonathanfoulkes.com
Ah, most was done in my youth, starting at age twelve when I blew my dads Dynaco 120 amp over-driving the system with some Emerson Lake and Palmer music (Tarkus IRRC).
Then one or two Shure V-15 carts in his system.

Once I got my own gear, no problems. Even after designing my own power subsystem, running all active crossovers and modding my own speakers. Guess if I had to pay for it, I was careful ;)

So my dad received a lot of "guilt conscience" system upgrades from me over his last few decades as I could now afford the penance.
 

Ronm1

Member Sponsor
Feb 21, 2011
1,745
4
0
wtOMitMutb NH
Nothing smoked or blasted in A/V, with CPU h/w, that's diff kettle fish.
 

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