Heard a crash in the house on Saturday. With three felines prowling the indoors, "crashes" aren't uncommon, but upon inspection, I couldn't find the cause (just two innocent looking cats, and one VERY innocent looking one... a.k.a. "The Suspect").
On Sunday, I turned on a system that I play on Sunday morning while getting ready for church (it's tuned to a station that warms me up for worship). The broadcast at that time is a recording of a church service from the previous week. They have been having some technical problems with their mix, so it has been sounding pretty poor lately, as it did Sunday. I didn't think twice about it.
When I went back into the office to turn it off before leaving for church, I noticed two things: the sound was REALLY bad, and only coming from one speaker, and I smelled electrical smoke. The smoke was coming from the outboard speaker switching box. Shut everything down, cursed (yes, even on Sunday), and vowed to investigate further at a later date.
Yesterday, I started the search. One channel blown on my Harman/Kardon Citation 12 amp (DC output of 23VDC on one channel... 100+VDC on the other!). Fried speaker selector switch (QES) circuitry. Fear of fried VCs on the EPI 150s. Tracked the line down to the speakers. And there it was. A wall plaque had crashed to the floor, collecting a framed picture on the way down, hitting the speaker wires for the EPIs and unplugging one lead. So, for the 35 minutes that I ran the amp in such an unbalanced condition, it died, and cooked the switch box as well (which apparently gave up its life for the EPIs).
The plaque is a wooden cutout of a rooster, with his feathers made of hundreds of different types of nails and brads (my late uncle made it). The speaker's wires broke its fall. I'm trying to decide if I want to try and get it fixed. I've got the service manual in hand, and so I may drop it by the Korean-immigrant TV/Radio tech shop nearby (their minimum is $50, NOT $150). It was a nice amp, but the cost of repair is probably going to outstrip it's value.
As for the house-tigers; the guiltier they are, the more innocently they behave post event. Great fun! It's possible that one of the cats did the dastardly deed, but this was hung in a pretty inacessible location. Declawing limits the little buggers' ability to spring from object to object. So I doubt it, but like I said, he looked a little "too" innocent in my book. The cat is probably innocent, and I've got a new 35 pound door stop.
And here ends my sad story.
1 comment:
Ouch!
Had to post to let you know that someone feels your pain.
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