Baby Proofing Hi-Fi - Advice and Recommendations

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Hey team

My wife and I are expecting a bundle of terror joy in the coming weeks so I am looking for any advice, recommendations, tips, etc on baby proofing turntables, stereo equipment, and record collections.

Honestly this could apply to pet owners as well, since babys and dogs and probably not all that different in their level of potential hi-fi annihilation. Useful information for all!

Appreciate the insights!
 
Hey team

My wife and I are expecting a bundle of terror joy in the coming weeks so I am looking for any advice, recommendations, tips, etc on baby proofing turntables, stereo equipment, and record collections.

Honestly this could apply to pet owners as well, since babys and dogs and probably not all that different in their level of potential hi-fi annihilation. Useful information for all!

Appreciate the insights!
My wife (the handy half of our marriage) literally installed a baby gate on my record shelf.
 
Congratulations! The good news is that you will have plenty of time to figure this out. :D It won't be until your baby can move across a room on his/her own power that you'll have to be ready, so that's at least 7 or 8 months, and even then, it's likely to be ground-level concern, which shouldn't be much of an issue. If records are filling floor-level shelves, they won't be very easy for an infant to pull from the shelf. Once your child begins to pull him/herself up to a standing position, it's the knobs, buttons and lights that will be most fascinating and subject to exploration. Of course, it your turntable were low enough to be within reach, that would be a problem. But overall, the real challenge will come when you hit the toddler stage well into the second year, and by that point you might have given up on your music altogether haha!

Best rules of thumb I can offer are to minimize the potential for conflict (meaning don't make the mistake of thinking you'll be able to teach your very young child not to touch your stuff!) by keeping as much of your equipment and records as possible out of your child's reach. And if there's something it would really hurt you to have damaged by your child, absolutely eliminate the possibility for that happening, whatever adjustments that might require. (I'm assuming you'll automatically be on top of assuring your child's safety.) If there's a way for you to close off to your child the area in the room where your stereo resides, that would be great for everyone involved. If not, find a way to get it out of reach.

You'll want your kid to be able to safely and freely explore her/his world, so plan accordingly.
 
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i dont know your set up, but if you have floorstading speakers ... find a way to cover the holes on the backside. i heared some kids like to put stuff into those o_O
have your records at a certain height, maybe leave some junk records where they can be reached and see if the kid even cares about em?
does your turntable have a cover ?

also my buddy found one of these in his tape deck one day
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I was worried when my daughter started to walk, but I had very few incidents. One of those was what Bazooka mentioned above. My daughter had my car keys and thought the rear port was a fun place to hide them. So I had to MacGyver a hook to a bamboo stick and fish those f’ing things out.

She would mostly like to go up to a cube and pick a random record out and then toss it on the floor. She’d do that a couple of times and then stop.

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She’d also like to crank up the volume knob about half way, but never did any damage. I was worried that I would have to move the setup to another room, but never did. One day she just stopped caring about it.

My advice is that if you have a dedicated room, when your baby starts trucking around the house, close the door. If you don’t have a dedicated room(mine is in the living room) then be mindful and a little patient. I never had to build or do anything special to prevent her from tinkering.
 
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