I do remember that my economics teacher said that you only should get insurance for things you cannot cover yourself by savings. He was very traditional but I like the idea.
Everytime someone wanted to sell me insurance or certain savings plans I did the calculations and indeed you always loose.
But on topic: Ovators have a solid build and integrated steel grills.
I had steel grills custom made for my SBLs to ensure they survive our 4 kid & cat family.
Replaced tweeters twice by my dealer on the cm1’s. They now have steel grillls too, like the S2 models have.
They are like the Mafia but with headed notepaper.
Their first reaction to you making a claim is “how can we deny the claim”. Even if you don’t go through with it you are now marked as an increased risk.
My three year old (now seven) pulled over a Keg Ls50 on it’s heavy iron stand. She was trying to feed the driver a bowl of yogurt. Fortunately the bowl stopped the fall with just enough room for the speaker to not crush her legs. $285 for a new driver, and some cosmetic damage that precludes probably ever reselling.
Anyway, they got moved to the office (never really worked that well in the living room anyway), and then I got Rega floor standers for safety reasons (if something going to fall over, I’d rather it not be a heavy speaker off a stand). Now back to Audio Physic stand mounts which have large non-tippy stands full of sand, with a wide base, lots of blue tack, and the kids are older. One thing I looked into and you could do is get or make some wider plinths for whatever speaker you decide on (or if you get the Totem fixed). And/or simple guide wires on the back to wall to keep them from toppling.
@popeye
Thankfully your little one is fine. I had a similar incident about 5 years ago. My Dynaudio XEO 5 was knocked over and it only suffered a small scratch on the surface. The XEO 5 is an active speaker, so it has a heavy amp built into the base and is quite stable. It was knocked over by an adult!
Similarly, a friend knocked over one of my Neat MF9s in a desperate attempt to remove his three-year-old from behind the speaker … I couldn’t help thinking that no damage would have been done by the youngster. Rather, it was his dad’s over zealous rescue attempt which resulted in a trip up the road to the Neat factory.
wow bertbird … i am nuts about verity audio speakers !! had a rienzi and it was just superb . had to sell it to pay the bills and regretted it. not sure if you are in the UK but they are very unknown in UK sadly . they were at the ascot show in november which i missed
I had a similar experience with my daughter not too long ago. Yanked a ProAc Tab 10 right off the shelf and onto the floor. That was that for the speaker. Missed her foot by about an inch. Otherwise it would have been crushed. Sweet relief!
That experience convinced me to get some ATC HTS 7s which are wall mounted. The risk of an accident is eliminated and they sound fantastic. I don’t feel like the wall mount design compromises the sound. I used to have standard SCM 7s and think the HTS 7s are better. Your Supernait 2 would drive them or the HTS 11s with ease.
ATCs are sort of love em or hate em - not sure which camp you might fall into - but is there no room to do wall mounts? I can’t tell from the picture.
Alternatively you could try Neat Iota Alphas or Xplorers. The lower center of gravity should reduce risk.
I’ve had kids push over my PMC Twenty5.23 before. Not only the weight but the worry about those spikes arcing up to catch them.
I struggled with kids plus hifi for 4 years and eventually got to a place where they respect the hifi but are too demanding to leave time to use it so it went into storage (not happily - like have a hot poker prod me I assure you). You might find it gets too much too. Depends on how much room you have and time to carve out for music when not exhausted.
I do find floorstanders far safer than standmount for any kid/dog/earthquake living environment. But nothing is fullproof. As there is no guarantee it won’t happen again, how about something lower cost with a lower centre of gravity to get past the first few years? Something like Neat Iota Explorer? Not heard them but throwing that sort of size out as an idea. She’ll be taller than them if not already.
Get over the hump, then reinstate the Totems, is what I might do.
When our first child arrived I had a CD5/ HC, Nait5i and Intro2 speakers which I loved. The general chaos that comes with young children in the house meant it was best to sell the system and not have the additional stress of managing the two things together until the three of them were through the toddler years. During that period I made do with an Arcam solo and some Arcam Alto bookshelf speakers all out of harm’s way which was actually an excellent sound. On reflection it was a good decision as it enabled us to enjoy the kids as they played in the sitting room and, of course, the time went in the blink of an eye. I then got back into Naim some 10 years later with a Uniti 2 and Kudos X2s and built it up from there.
No kids in our house, hence why we can have a 100% white colour scheme! On the few occasions relations turn up with kids, before they arrive, I section the hifi off with chairs and tape between them… a bit like a police crime scene!
You know what they say; “Hell is other people’s children.” And if you don’t like kids its very true. Funny thing about having kids is if you dislike kids and feel really uncomfortable around them in general, that doesn’t change one iota. You love your own and feel comfortable with them, but still dislike other people’s just as much as before you had your own. If I didn’t have my own, I’d put barbed wire around the hifi and wire it to mains before others came with their sprogs.
Not everyone will agree, but I wouldn’t drive SCM40s with a SN, except perhaps as a temporary solution. With extensive auditioning, I found even a 250DR didn’t fully reveal what these speakers are capable of – it’s why I went for actives. I think Popeye is planning a move to a 300 at some point and that is much more like it, but I would then suggest a prior comparison with the actives.
One further point: it is often said that the ATCs, being sealed boxes, can be positioned close to walls. Whilst they are certainly better in that location than many rear or bottom ported speakers, my own experiments have led to the conclusion that they sound even better well away from walls. This is what ATC themselves recommend in their user manual. And I would not want to contemplate pulling out 31kg speakers on a regular basis, even with added spinach!
