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<\/a>One of these things is not like the other…<\/p><\/div>\n
I’ve been an audio\/video geek since elementary school.\u00a0 I always wanted to be the kid who got to turn the filmstrip projector, run the 16mm projector…I could go on.\u00a0 I never met an A\/V receiver I couldn’t find a use for and must have at least 4 of them around the house.<\/p>\n
Amanda and I are at the new house in Keeseville this weekend.\u00a0 Whenever we come we try and bring more stuff from the house in Potsdam.\u00a0 This trip I packed up my “occasional use” stereo set from upstairs–the one I use when I want to hear vinyl.\u00a0 It’s comprised of an RCA receiver from the 90s or 2000s and two Harmon Kardon floor speakers I found by the side of the road shortly after moving to Potsdam.\u00a0 I brought this and the TV from my den to the new house and got it all hooked up last night.\u00a0 Amanda and I watched some TV and went to bed.<\/p>\n
This morning while we were enjoying some coffee I turned all the gear on and noted a slight buzz coming from the speakers.\u00a0 It was annoying, but not unbearable; and you couldn’t really hear it while content was playing.\u00a0 Then all of a sudden the audio started cutting in and out and the amp was making clicking noises.\u00a0 I got out of my chair and proceeded to do the things once does to such equipment when one doesn’t really know what’s wrong with it–you know; turning it off and on again, blowing dust out of it, hitting it, etc.\u00a0 While I was doing this, Amanda exclaims, “did you see that?!”\u00a0 I hadn’t, and asked her what she was talking about.\u00a0 She had seen a spark come from the right-hand speaker.\u00a0 I looked over and saw some wispy smoke coming from the speaker, which I thought was novel.\u00a0 After all, this wasn’t “This Is Spinal Tap” and I certainly hadn’t dialed anything up to 11!\u00a0 And anyway, amp was still buzzing, so I should probably pay attention to that, right?<\/p>\n
Wrong.\u00a0 10 seconds later I noticed that the smoke wasn’t going away.\u00a0 There was more of it, and as I stared at it, the speaker burst into flames!\u00a0 The cloth grill very quickly started burning along with the speaker cone.\u00a0 I blew on it, but that was no good so I shrugged, picked it up, and told Amanda, “get the door!” and brought it outside tn tossed it face down in the snow.<\/p>\n
That receiver and speakers have now been replaced by Dad’s old Fisher receiver from the 1960s and the KLH speakers he bought from the Hi-Fi shop when at college in Potsdam.\u00a0 I never thought that speakers could\/would catch fire like that.\u00a0 But I’ve learned a valuable lesson: If there’s AC voltage going IN to something, then there is the possibility that that voltage can come OUT of it on any kind of wire if the right things go wrong; and that this is why equipment should always be unplugged whenever you are making any kind of change to connections.<\/p>\n