Zaubertuba
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2009
- Posts
- 449
- Likes
- 23
So, I'm sitting in my chair watching Deep Space Nine a couple of nights ago.
I have our cat, Daphne, in my lap with a blanket. Nice and cozy. Daphne's really been an outdoor cat since she started a nasty habit of marking things, but I bring her in from time to time when she'll stay put on my lap where I can keep an eye on her.
Suddenly, she starts up with that wide-eyed "I got a hairball" look and a couple of dry coughs.
"Oh Crap," Thinks I.
I grab her (as carefully as you can quickly grab a cat trying to cough up a hairball) and start across the living room to the door, to get her out to the garage where she can get the darned hairball out in peace (and without staining/damaging anything on my person or inside the house).
CRASH!
Something pulls on my head and I fall halfways to my knees, still partially holding the cat, having a *real* bad feeling in my gut as I look back--knowing already what I've done.
My recabled HD555's are still partly on my head, the cord stretched across the living room to the amp, which I yanked rather abruptly off the end table on to the floor.
"O.K., first things first," think I, "whatever damage I did is already done..." so I somehow slip the headphones off and half carry/coax Daphne back out to the Garage.
I walk back to the living room and assess the damage.
The amp took a big bounce on the carpet. The dual trs 1/4" plugs I used for the recable yanked partially out of the jacks, as did the dual 1/4" trs plugs I used on the cable from my E-Mu to the amp. I was using a sub-standard cheap power socket for the wall-wart powering the amp which pulled free as soon as the amp left the end table.
The headphones and their cable, miraculously, appear to be undamaged. I turn the volume down, plug everything back in and slowly bring the volume back up.
Sound--in both sides. Disaster averted. How lucky can a guy get?
If I had been wearing my HD580's I can't help but think I would have damaged the cable, at the least.
Lessons Learned:
1.) Cable ties and shrink tape were a *really* good choice for strain-relief.
2.) Going cheap isn't necessarily always bad. The cheap dual-trs components I used on this first build "gave" a little bit. If I had used locking 1/4" or XLR jacks something (most likely the headphone plastic, IMO) might easily have broken. If the power cord hadn't pulled out I might have shorted my 'phones and permanently damaged them.
3.) Mogami 3106 is nearly bullet-proof.
...and, most importantly...
...
4.) Be sure to remember to feed the cat hairball formula before you listen to your headphones.
Anybody else experience any similar absent-minded mishaps?
Edit: ....and what lessons did you learn?
I have our cat, Daphne, in my lap with a blanket. Nice and cozy. Daphne's really been an outdoor cat since she started a nasty habit of marking things, but I bring her in from time to time when she'll stay put on my lap where I can keep an eye on her.
Suddenly, she starts up with that wide-eyed "I got a hairball" look and a couple of dry coughs.
"Oh Crap," Thinks I.
I grab her (as carefully as you can quickly grab a cat trying to cough up a hairball) and start across the living room to the door, to get her out to the garage where she can get the darned hairball out in peace (and without staining/damaging anything on my person or inside the house).
CRASH!
Something pulls on my head and I fall halfways to my knees, still partially holding the cat, having a *real* bad feeling in my gut as I look back--knowing already what I've done.
My recabled HD555's are still partly on my head, the cord stretched across the living room to the amp, which I yanked rather abruptly off the end table on to the floor.
"O.K., first things first," think I, "whatever damage I did is already done..." so I somehow slip the headphones off and half carry/coax Daphne back out to the Garage.
I walk back to the living room and assess the damage.
The amp took a big bounce on the carpet. The dual trs 1/4" plugs I used for the recable yanked partially out of the jacks, as did the dual 1/4" trs plugs I used on the cable from my E-Mu to the amp. I was using a sub-standard cheap power socket for the wall-wart powering the amp which pulled free as soon as the amp left the end table.
The headphones and their cable, miraculously, appear to be undamaged. I turn the volume down, plug everything back in and slowly bring the volume back up.
Sound--in both sides. Disaster averted. How lucky can a guy get?
If I had been wearing my HD580's I can't help but think I would have damaged the cable, at the least.
Lessons Learned:
1.) Cable ties and shrink tape were a *really* good choice for strain-relief.
2.) Going cheap isn't necessarily always bad. The cheap dual-trs components I used on this first build "gave" a little bit. If I had used locking 1/4" or XLR jacks something (most likely the headphone plastic, IMO) might easily have broken. If the power cord hadn't pulled out I might have shorted my 'phones and permanently damaged them.
3.) Mogami 3106 is nearly bullet-proof.
...and, most importantly...
...
4.) Be sure to remember to feed the cat hairball formula before you listen to your headphones.
Anybody else experience any similar absent-minded mishaps?
Edit: ....and what lessons did you learn?
