I was talking to JimBones about my speaker predicament and he very astutely pointed out that it would be a good idea to hook up some kind of old speakers to the system before I fixed the Nolas and play it for a few hours to make sure that tightening the ground lugs fixed the problem and there is not some other kind of hardware fault that will re-injure the Nolas once I repare them. Good call Jim!
In my funk about the failure I wasn't really thinking clearly about the going forward steps.
That's why I like it here, There is always somebody to watch your back
So I went out to the garage and dug out an old pair of Kenwood speakers that I bought in 1981 for $49 in the Macys Clearance center. If they blow out, who cares.
Well so far they have been playing for about 45 minutes with no problems. I'll keep my fingers crossed that things remain OK.
I went back and picked up right where I left off, playing the LP that was on the table when the Nolas blew:
Toscanini (Conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra): Light Classical Favorites, Disc 2
Readers Digest LP
........... The Vinyl Vampire is back in the saddle (limping a bit, but back in the saddle none the less.)