[nocrapman]

Hey folks,
  The baby is 7 months and is showing signs of crawling any day... is already rolling all over the  place! As excited as we are, my hobbies will need some adjustment. Of all my hobbies, HT and audio has taken the biggest hit.
 
Setup 1: 2-ch Audio only listening room: I will be gating it and limiting access to that room. Although he loves listening to music through the Salks!

Setup 2: Bedroom music only 2-ch setup - already taken apart since I had a tube amp on the floor along with a pair of floor standers - now relegated to the basement.

Setup 3: HT/Music setup in the family room - ENDANGERED... help me save it from extinction too!! The setup includes a LCD TV which sits on top of a Onix/AV123 bigfoot center channel, which sits on a table. This is flanked on the right by a Sanus 5-shelf steel rack which has all the components - Emotiva LPA-1, Onkyo 805, APC H20, Oppo 80, PS3, Xbox 360 and Squeezebox 3 - from bottom to top. L-R are a pair of AV123/Onix 760s are equidistant from the sides of the TV about 10 feet apart.

So how do I save  this setup ??
- Add a plastic fence all around it and hope it will hold up - will look FUGLY though!
- Move the TV to the wall, Get rid of the floorstanders, buy wall mounted bookshelves from B&W or Paradigm and just secure the rack.
- Get rid of everything but the TV and the Cablebox and the PS3 (for blurays/netflix) and live simply for the next few years.

Appreciate any ideas/ thoughts from fellow forum members especially folks who have been through a similar phase.

Thanks!

[funkmonkey]

I'm right there with you now, my daughter is 8 mo.s and starting to crawl.  My rack is long and low not sure if i am going to try and sell some stuff and move to a more kid friendly/concealable Mac mini/DAC set up or just try to block everything off.  Either way I need to make some doors for my cabinet.  My HT3s are stout enough that I am not too worried about them getting knocked over.  My daughter loves the Salk sound as well, and listening to some music together is part of our daily routine.

My advice for you would be to get a rack that you can close.
Good luck

[mchuckp]

Just a word of caution from an experience a friend of mine had.  His little one pushed in the cones of his speakers.  Although far from ideal, he hasn't fixed or replaced them as he can't afford it. 

[TomW16]

Just a word of caution from an experience a friend of mine had.  His little one pushed in the cones of his speakers.  Although far from ideal, he hasn't fixed or replaced them as he can't afford it.

I am not sure about the damage caused by the pushed in cones but if it is just the dust cap, you might try to use a vacuum and suck the dust cap out again.

Kind regards,
Tom

[JP78]

I come across this at work all the time.

Salamander Designs makes racks with lock and key doors and mounts. You can put all of your equipment and center channel behind doors of perforated metal under lock and key. You can get the optional television mount as well to attach to the furniture to make the television impossible to tip over.

If your floorstanders are close to a wall you can use string and hooks to attach one hook from the top of the backside of the towers to the wall right behind them to prevent tipping over. Additionally, using fishing wire will make it invisible.

Best of luck with the baby,

[keenween]

i say add plastic fence. it might only be needed for a short time.

i blocked physical access from my son for a time by putting a big bean bag in front of the rack/tv. i taught him "no no" very early on and was consistent and reinforced that he couldn't touch the av center. he is 20 months old now and i trust him around the av stuff...he gets tempted by a volume knob now and again, but who could blame the kid. he likes to help open and close the dvd player if we watch a movie, but thats about all i let him touch for now. kids grow up fast. i'll have to repeat the process with my new boy.

teach your kid no, i think its invaluable, so useful in so many situations.

[Bob in St. Louis]

teach your kid no, i think its invaluable, so useful in so many situations.

Ditto that.
My (naked) drivers have never covered, and the (delicate) acoustic panels have never been "armor plated". My kids are 6 and 11, the HT room is about 8 years old. They've been told since birth the consequences of touching Daddy's things. 
So far...not a scratch.

Bob