toddlers and hifi

I have been moving my kit around, in the vain attempt to prevent my son pulling it over, dribbling on it and generally actions that'll render any equipment useless. I have come to the conclusion that it isn't going to work. So my stand mounted speakers and cd player have to go. My plans for an valve amp has been put on ice for the moment.

My idea is to follow the path that some other people have gone down. Namely music server, SB2, amp driving AV type speaker setup. Something on brackets.

I have had poor experiences of wall mounted speakers, to me they sound awful. (For those of you that remember, the last time I asked about this for one of my friends, she went for a B&W MT30 setup, but I can't afford 1500gbp .... and I haven't got round to visiting her either.)

In the context of a 4.5 by 4 m living room, I'm after something that does av and music well. Must be child proof. I would prefer the emphasis to be on music reproduction. Secondhand is ok. I can even go commercial satellites and diy sub. I built one a few years ago for my car and that worked very well.

For av duties, a cheapo av amp will do, I think. For music, I'll stick with a NAP110 and may be later a PP EL34/KT88, but valves and kids don't mix, so it'll have to wait for quite a while.

 

Put your equipment of turntable shelves on the wall, above the little one's reach. Works for me. You can still have that valve amp as long as it ain't too heavy for a wall shelf.

As for the speakers, get something very heavy or a heavy standmount on very heavy stands that can't be toppled over. Just remember to keep the grilles on.

 

Fire a water pistol at the creature when it approaches the kit,it works for cats.

Or start crying like I did when my son ripped a cone

 

Stick all your hifi in a cupboard or on shelving that's out of reach of toddlers fingers! I've had a valve based kit for the last 2 years and have 2 kids; a 2 year old and a 5 year old - no burnt fingers or broken valves yet. Keep your covers on the speakers and impress upon them that you love your hifi as much as they love their teddy bears.
I'm fortunate in having a very large and very solid built-in cupboard that's an original feature of the house (c1900 terraced) which keeps most things out of their reach.

My only major bugbear is putting up with them pulling CDs out of the rack on a daily basis. ho hum.

 

barbed wire...

 

yeah, you could get a valve amp with a safety cage, or enclosed valves inside a solid metal casing if you want valves.

Why not look at a bashed up pair of second hand speakers? - you then wont mind at all if the kid knocks them off/over. If you're worried about falling items, you could always bluetack them down, or go with floorstanders that are too heavy to knock.. you could always leave the grills on which will protect the drive units (I do)

I think the wall shelf idea is a good one.

TBH.. I think the equipment most in danger is your video/dvd player. My son stuffed a banana inside this, but thats the extent of his damaging!!

(vases and lamps and china pottery are another matter)

 

I have sent you a pm with a possible solution

Andrew

 

Luckily for me,my child got badly burnt by the A21,so he stayed away from the gear from then on.

 

I'm sure my A21 and/or A21a never got hot enough to burn anyone - they got hot but not that hot, you sure yours is working correctly or has enough ventilation?!

 

pulling of cds/dvds ? yep mine does that. Thats one of the reasons for going audio server. FLAC for me, don't fancy the lossy methods.

I have a pair of Dynaudio 52 on stands, within 5 days of him crawling he started climbing up them, since they were on granite tiles, they didn't stay static for long. I just managed to stop them toppling over on top of him.

Now they are on shelves 2m high, 0cm from the rear wall. They sound terrible there. Now he has started pulling at the speaker cables. Training doesn't seem to work too well at the moment, now he looks around to see if any one is watching, then he starts pulling at the wires .... He celebrates his first birthday next week.

The speakers need a plenty of space behind them before they work properly, I reckon its the rear ports. At the correct position they are not SWMBO compatible. So I'd thought I sort out two problems at the same time sats and sub.

 

I was kidding

he raised an eyebrow,enough to keep him away in future.It doesn't run hot enough to burn,but hot enough to have an in built toddler protector.

 

hmm

My son knows to only use the hifi under supervision (he is 10). Many moons ago, when I worked in HiFi retail, it was a job to stop the kids from pushing in ever tweeter in the shop! fun though when we got the Linn Nexus etc with the "stocking" style covers, the little tykes couldn't work out how to get the "cover" off in order to carry out the dastardly deed... I often thought that an extendable cattle prod would have been handy to keep them in check.

:JPS:

 

get some electrostatics or Magneplanars. though maggies and moggies do not get on.

if you buy enough Mana you could get your kit high enough to be out of harms way

 

No kids so can't comment on keeping stuff safe (although the Epos metal basket grills are beginning to make more sense) but I would suggest that if wall mounting is the name of the game, the Spendor SR5 is top of the class- genuinely lovely. Castle Compacts aren't shabby either.

 

We have a 2.5 year old and she understands not to touch the hifi which is in a big reclaimed pine chest with the tt on top.

i've a power amp behind an arm chair that she's not found yet.

my answer would be to stick it all in a box with locable doors and copious use of the word 'no', also keep the grills on speakers and if take them off make sure little one isn't around. also get big heavy pair of floor standers that she can't knock over

 

the spendor sr5 look interesting, need to hear them first, but the price has shocked me: 1000USD per pair or £500 each ! Since these thigs are made on the South coast of England, wait for them to be shipped thousands of miles, ship them back thousands of miles, pay VAT and guess what, they're significantly cheaper !

I'm going to start a new thread, as I think this one has gone off tangent ;-)

 

my fear is in between training him not to touch stuff, he'll get 20Kg of speakers fall on him. also the more we hide something from him, or the more we try to dissuade him, the more he remembers and goes for it when our backs are turned.

music from sats and sub will be better than no music at all. restraints are not an option ......... as he'll probably chew through those !