child proofing speakers

Audiolab 9000A Integrated Amplifier
Hey just kidding!! Saw the whole thread now, other helpful folks have given pretty good suggestions... Its a tough balancing act, wonder how you will enjoy listening to music with the appalling tenshun!! You can't even close your eyes and listen to music now :eek:

I wonder why you did not think about wall mountable speakers with woofer tucked away in corner. The wall mounts could have been out of reach ...

If I find or think up any useful tip will surely post. Until then ...

Cheers and good luck!

PS: The crayons can be used for drawing a "lakshman rekha" around the speakers ;)
 
gobble said:
PS: The crayons can be used for drawing a "lakshman rekha" around the speakers ;)
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For all you know, kiddo might interpret it as a line 'within' which lies his territory and 'musical toys' !

There is one option worth considering though. Pack the speakers and keep them away. Get a pair of decent used bookshelves for the next year or so.
 
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gobble said:
Hey just kidding!! Saw the whole thread now, other helpful folks have given pretty good suggestions... Its a tough balancing act, wonder how you will enjoy listening to music with the appalling tenshun!! You can't even close your eyes and listen to music now :eek:

I wonder why you did not think about wall mountable speakers with woofer tucked away in corner. The wall mounts could have been out of reach ...

If I find or think up any useful tip will surely post. Until then ...

Cheers and good luck!

PS: The crayons can be used for drawing a "lakshman rekha" around the speakers ;)
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Ofcourse,,with you providing auto suggestions like recreating the modification of my speakers so vivedly helps for sure :)

Dr. Dinyaar the wise had suggested the same, but he saw that I was hell bent, so thought to himself (jane de, jab phatke nahin padenge, seekhega nahin), he just smiled and discussed floorstander options with me...which is why now he isn't saying much,,since trying hard to control his laughter...

If I was to put a 4mm ply box around the speakers, with a foldable front,,will it affect the speakers in anyway,,and or if i put a steel, plastic mesh in front of the ply box..will it affect sound delivery in anyway?

thanks Gobble..
 
Well, I have got a simple suggestion. Instead of trying to find ways and means to try prevention techniques with the child why dont we try and get the kid to love the speakers.

Lets say when he is being given food, you can play some cartoons and show him how the sound is coming out of the speakers and then show him how without the speakers he will not be able to enjoy the cartoons (mute or switch them off). Children nowadays are plenty smart to get the message in this fashion.

I did not quite get the age of your child. But if he/she is above 2 years old, this is bound to work. And this way he also develops some taste along the way. :)
 
thevortex said:
Well, I have got a simple suggestion. Instead of trying to find ways and means to try prevention techniques with the child why dont we try and get the kid to love the speakers.
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Smart suggestion. Teach him to revere the speakers with awe :) Better than all the crazy contraptions to protect your setup - maybe they can be the 2nd line of defense. 3rd line of defense can be a adaptation of the patriot anti-missile defense system that uses paper/thermocol missile interceptors .. :)

A ring of barriers is the best deterrent.

I am quite enjoying your plight yuk! yuk! Sorry but cant help it :)

Cheers
 
Kamal said:
Hi, I quite understand your concern-the little son of a friend of mine poked in the silk dome tweeters of his ProAcs promptly when they arrived.
Suggestion-the easiest wld be to slide the cardboard cartons the speakers came in onto the speakers when not in use(of course!)-that way, the sweet little fingers won't be able to damage the drivers.When you want to listen, it would the work of a moment to whip them off.No need to face them agnst the wall/keep repositioning them.
If that would look too "industrial"/wife wld not agree to the ugly printed cartonsperpetually in sight, get plywood polished boxes made which could be slid on/off easily.
BTW, congrats on you rpurchase-these are lovely speakers.
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Great commonsense idea!! I second that.

Cheers
 
I swear guys, this is the most beautiful thread I have ever read on HiFiVision. I have read it multiple times, and my eyes always fill with tears of joy when I read the thread. Shuvc and Madjack, I really envy you the joy you must me having with those small feet running around and keeping you on tenterhooks all the time. And I keep imaging the scenario and the look on you guys' eyes.

Real cheeky of UnleashMe to point you quietly to a book on 'Threat & Obedience'. I wonder if he is also rolling on the floor with laughter.

Mango season is coming, so watch out guys for some nice orange smears on all objects. Sometime ago I had painted my house, and my 93 year old mother was dirtying the walls leaning on it for support. Made me lose my temper a few times. Now I will keep quite, and just repaint the wall a few times myself. Thank you guys for opening my eyes.

Cheers
 
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Four ways to handle this

1. Obedience. This usually does not work. It worked with a friend of mine. He brought up two brats with a pair of expensive stand-mounts in the living room. Dont ask me how he did it :D
2. If the first one does not work, then surrender yourself to fate and replace whatever is damaged.
3. Hard grill replaces the soft cloth one. You can get one done if you mail some of the Indian speaker designers. They will guide you. Not a big deal.
4. Subwoofer and satellite till the kid grows up. This actually sounds very good if done right.
 
Hi Jitendra,
Ok, i spoke to a few friends and i know of a fellow who will make u a metal grill for your speakers. Will finish it in matt black and it barely costs anything. These guys sell PA systems at lamington road. Best is to call him over and take exact measurements so he can make something very precise. As square Wave suggested this seems to be the best way forward. U wont feel too much loss of frequencies, wife will be not too upset and little fellow wont have to be constantly reprimanded. Cartons/ plywood boxes etc will work but too cumbersome IMO.
I also spoke to my friend for the speaker cables. He will sell them to u at lower than new rates. These are new supra classic 6 sq,mm tin coated copper speaker cables that he bought two weeks ago but sound very edgy in his set up so they are thrown out. Lakozy sells @ 750/ meter and u can take them at 500/m if u are interested. There are 6 ft pairs and 10 ft pairs which he has cut for Bi amping/ bi wiring. Keep in mind 6 sq.mm is very thick and would equate to about 7/8 AWG i think.
Rgds
Rgds
 
thevortex said:
Well, I have got a simple suggestion. Instead of trying to find ways and means to try prevention techniques with the child why dont we try and get the kid to love the speakers.

Lets say when he is being given food, you can play some cartoons and show him how the sound is coming out of the speakers and then show him how without the speakers he will not be able to enjoy the cartoons (mute or switch them off). Children nowadays are plenty smart to get the message in this fashion.

I did not quite get the age of your child. But if he/she is above 2 years old, this is bound to work. And this way he also develops some taste along the way. :)
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I wish that was easily possible...he s all of 1.5 yrs old. He doesnt do anything with the idea of destroying it. He s just being inquisitive, thats about it. So have tried everything on other things, on this new acquisition, I dont have the stomach to pay the price for the test bench ..:)
 
dinyaar said:
Hi Jitendra,
Ok, i spoke to a few friends and i know of a fellow who will make u a metal grill for your speakers. Will finish it in matt black and it barely costs anything. These guys sell PA systems at lamington road. Best is to call him over and take exact measurements so he can make something very precise. As square Wave suggested this seems to be the best way forward. U wont feel too much loss of frequencies, wife will be not too upset and little fellow wont have to be constantly reprimanded. Cartons/ plywood boxes etc will work but too cumbersome IMO.
I also spoke to my friend for the speaker cables. He will sell them to u at lower than new rates. These are new supra classic 6 sq,mm tin coated copper speaker cables that he bought two weeks ago but sound very edgy in his set up so they are thrown out. Lakozy sells @ 750/ meter and u can take them at 500/m if u are interested. There are 6 ft pairs and 10 ft pairs which he has cut for Bi amping/ bi wiring. Keep in mind 6 sq.mm is very thick and would equate to about 7/8 AWG i think.
Rgds
Rgds
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Thanks Dinyaar,
Do let me know his name and number. Will meet him asap.
Thanks for the cables too. How much would I get 14 awg equivalent cables for? like you said, 7/8 awg seems like an overkill.

will call you in the evening.
 
Hi,
Yes will give u his contact asap.
Look for 12 AWG speaker wire for this speaker for better bass response. IMO 14/16 is thin. U could try supra classic 4 @ lakozy @ 500/meter, Kimber 4 VS from AVI @ 250/ft , Jenteck sky @ lakozy @ 350/ meter, chord silver screen @ boomarang @ 600/meter and the list goes on and on. If u want to tame a bright set up try VDH cables like clearwater/CS 122 from Marbin colah. It depends on the sound of the set up and what one is after in cables. U can also buy used later as and when they are available OR go to spectra connectronics at lamington Road and buy Belden 12 AWG copper in whatever length u require. Should be about 200/250/meter.They may also carry a local brand called MX but i dont know how good the cables are. Cheapest is to buy their own spectra speaker copper wire at about 100/m. A few guys use this for their HT set ups where a lot of cable is used and they are happy.
At a later date after u are happy with the cables do terminate them.
Rgds
 
I also agree with Venkat that this is a beautiful thread. The descriptions by madjack and Shuvc are hilarious, very enjoyable for us to read about these little 'problems' that we have around the house.

Madjack, I guess unless you have to put them away and settle for some bookshelves for the interim, you have to work out a solution of covering and securing the covers in some way when not in use as some have suggested. Dinyaar in his recent post also perhaps is suggesting something similar.

In the following, I am briefly going to say what we did when we had our son at similar ages. This is NOT going to help madjack or Shuvc, I guess. However, I am going to say it anyway, because some others may benefit from it in future. My method was more along the lines of what Vortex suggested.

We bought our Canton speakers about a year and a half before our son was born. There was music in our household everyday including the days of my wife's pregnancy. After our son was born, I made sure that some music was played everyday when I was not home and away in office. Everyday before I left for office I would pick a few CDs, cassettes or LPs to be played by my wife when my son's little cot would be brought to our living room where the audio setup was kept. Whenever I would sing at home, he would be brought and placed near me.

When he got a few months older and could sit and watch, I would talk to him about music, would show him all our audio setup, speakers, my musical instruments etc. He would sit and watch us dust all these items in weekends.

The result of all that was, by the time he grew a little bigger and became a toddler, he understood (I guess in his own way) what these things do and they are to be cared for. In addition he also developed deep fondness for music (it is unfortunate that I could not teach him vocal music because he had severe problems with Asthma in his childhood, and doctors ultimately suggested regular physical activities and that's how his cricket started at a very early stage).

When he was about a year and half old, I put the Cantons on some bad unstable light stands (bad purchase) and this arrangement was there for nearly two years. We explained to him that he should not touch the speakers, and they are heavy and and can fall on him. While I am writing this, I am still amazed till today that nothing happened during those two years with Cantons on those bad stands. He realized very early in his life that the speakers are to be left alone and listened to.

This worked for our son. Every child is different. Our method may not work with others. But the young audiophiles out there planning to have a child, at least you can try out what we did. But of course you need some planning before the child is born and you need to pursue it seriously. It may just work for some kids. For madjack's and Shuvc's kids, this probaby would not work any more, because they already have their ideas well formed about the speakers in their houses.

Please, please never loose your temper with your sons. I know we all do it. But 17 years after, I do realize that I have made some mistakes and do vividly remember the occasions I lost my temper with my son.
 
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Asit said:
Please, please never loose your temper with your sons. I know we all do it. But 17 years after, I do realize that I have made some mistakes and do vividly remember the occasions I lost my temper with my son.
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I was hesitating to write this is a pubic forum and that too unrelated to audio, video, or music. But Asit has written what I wanted to say beautifully. And I just cant help but pen the following words.

Believe me, music will come and go, audio systems will come and go, and even speakers will come and go. But all of us have only one chance in a lifetime with our children. And those moments are too precious to waste on our own individual pleasures. Bring up a your children with love and affection, and be proud when you see them succeed in life. Many of you may say, what about my own life? You gave that away when you decided to have children. You now have an immense responsibility - not of bringing them up, but giving them love and affection and making them feel special.

I have never raised my voice leave alone my hand on my son. I never denied him anything he wanted. Today when I see him walking through life with confidence and enjoying life, all that I sacrificed for him become meaningless.

I started focussing on my hobby of music and video late in life when I don't have to worry about tiny hands handing me a knob. But, believe me, I would again prefer that any day. The joy and pleasure that you get when a child smiles at you with pleasure - no Pink Floyd or Sean Connery can bring that lump to my throat. They are that special.

Cheers
 
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Venkat and Asit,
I am going to treasure your posts and see them whenever i get low in life and when i direct my anger towards my kids.
You have made me emotional!
Very well written and meant. Absolute pearls, there!

Regards
Murali
 
madjack said:
I wish that was easily possible...he s all of 1.5 yrs old. He doesnt do anything with the idea of destroying it. He s just being inquisitive, thats about it. So have tried everything on other things, on this new acquisition, I dont have the stomach to pay the price for the test bench ..:)
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I guess I was lucky. My son just loved watching VCDs of popular Tamil songs and Cartoons. All my wife would have to do to get some free time would be to plonk him in front of the TV with a VCD or DVD running! That would net her 1 hour of freedom!

Have you tried doing that with your kid? Of course it is not that this should work in every case, but I guess no harm in trying.
 
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