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Do family members hate your hobby? Or embrace it?

My wife and kids seem pretty neutral about it. They say I'm going thru another one of my mid-life crisises, my other being photography. My wife does use my system to listen to her CDs, and she is pretty supportive of going with me to yard sales and thrift shops to look for vintage gear. It also gives her an oppertunity to look for depression glass and porcelain dolls, which are her hobbies. After all, I bought her a $600 curio cabinet to display her dolls in, so she can't complain about my hobby too much!

^WILL^^
 
Mrs Lord alternates between being bemused and mystified by it all. Her main concern is space as our residence is small. She has a point. So I pass on a lot of stuff that I would not mind having, but would probably just sit around. For instance, yesterday I saw a Technics SA-400 but left it there.

Eventually we will have larger quarters and I will establish a proper workshop and finally learn how to repair some of these treasures. And I will also set aside some shelf space to display some good pieces.
 
I credit my father with getting me started into audio in the 70's. He always had a nice system put together, before I was born and after. As he got older, his tastes changed, such as not wanting the big Marantz HD-880 speakers taking up so much room. Great.......I'll take 'em! My dad is impressed when he sees my system, but he cracks a few jokes of course. Even though he was a former audiophile, he never had so many components like I do! But he respects the hobby and he knows that I have accumulated quite an investment. He's thrilled to see the before and after pics of the speakers I have refinished lately! My wife is happy only because all of my equipment is tucked away downstairs in an extra bedroom, or in the workshop. My 17yo son is a musician. He loves the Marantz 2252B and Mach Two's I have given him but for the most part, hasn't shown any interest in the hobby. Whenever his band records a new song and they burn it to CD, he plays it on "my" system for reference. So maybe there's some hope there! My older brothers who are 9 and 10 years older than I, don't seem to care much, which is shocking since they are from that era. Nobody that comes to visit our house, family members or friends, really show any interest..... What's funny is my wife's ex-husband has some Pioneer HPM-100's... We were over at his house this summer (he and my wife have a son together) and I noticed them, which generated some conversation, especially since I was restoring mine at the same time! But I don't think I'm going to spend any more time talking audio with him, especially since I stole his wife 19 years ago! :thmbsp:
 
Good Lord, Jack, the SA-400 is a decent little receiver. I admire your restraint.

Receivers in need of repair are easy to "hide" in my unfinished room. Big speaker boxes, of course, are another story. I'm waiting to see what my beautiful wife says about my planned garage system (Sony STR 7065 > Minimus 7s mounted on the wall). My plan is to have her "discover" it when I am in the garage refinishing the canopy bed, or the steamer trunk, or another sweat and chemicals project she has for me.
 
LOL! Well...I did grab the much-reviled Pioneer SR-202W Reverb Amp. What the hell? Another Pioneer addition for $10.00.
 
My immediate family has no problems with the hobby, especially when they all reap the benefits of having their own systems!

My brothers, sisters, mom, and dad on the other hand just ask me what I do with all this junk. What I tell those family members who just don't "get it" is, I just simply ask them these two questions:

"How many of you have recently bought some electronic equipment, used it for several years, and then sold it for much more than what you paid for it?"

And..... "I'll bet you never heard "junk" sound this good before have you?"

That usually shuts them up every time! :yes:


Retro
 
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My wife is tolerant of it all. There are some ground rules, though:

1. I must stay in the black.
This is probably good as there is always some stuff leaving to make room for the new.

2. If it stinks, it doesn't come in the house.
This is okay with me... :puke: :beatnik:

3. If it's too loud, I'll turn it down.
I used to have one of those "If it's too loud, you're too old" posters. I guess we're both too old. Crap.
 
I am currently in college for computer science, and live at the home with my mother(dad got his azz booted out for cheating)
My mother loves listening to my stereo, I let her come to my room and put her CDs in and I control them for her(she says she cant learn all the controls..lol) She loves the sound quality, and prefers my stereo over the sx-1250 and L65s my dad left behind.
She tells me it is a healthy hobby, and to have fun with it.
My twin brother cannot understand why I like the stuff, no matter how hard I try to convince him, he is one of those people who thinks their computer speakers sound better, because they are 5.1 and have a seperate sub-woofer.
It is beyond me why he thinks my old digital crap receiver was better with a junky set of CVs.
Then again, he spends 10 hours a day playing video games and such... So he really has no idea what he is talking about.
I tried getting him into it once, with a HK 230A and fisher monitors, be he says they are ugly and take up too much space.
Ticks me off.
My older brother(30yo) loves the bass and plays his rock music on it when he comes over, but he couldn't care less about SQ, just SPL.
My dad loves it, he got booted from the house for cheating, but he was once and audiophile. He thinks it sounds better than his L65s on a sx-1250 he had.
I don't have many real friends(2 or 3)(and 30 or 40 people I know well), but the ones I have think it is cool, but prefer a remote controlled system, because they are lazy. They don't mind handing me their CDs and asking me to play them.

Anyway, that is my two pennies.
 
dr*audio said:
My wife and daughters appreciate good sound, but they think we are all "nerds."
Click to expand...
Maybe that's because we're nerds! :yes:

At our old house, the only closets that didn't have either records or camera gear was out bedroom closets.

At the new house, I have an 8x12 closet in the daylight basement dedicated to the aforementioned "stuff". The rule of the house is nothing comes upstairs, except CD's to be played on the living room system.

My grown sons have instructed me to divest myself of my record collection before I die because they don't want it and they don't want to be bothered with its disposition.

Doug
 
My father loves it :thmbsp:
My neighbors respect it :rockon:
My wife and kids take it for granted :rolleyes:
 
My family is basically supportive, but I have heard things like "other secret life, latest hobby, etc.".

Our boys have "systems" because of it and they know that things can get fixed if broken. I try to keep the "pile" in check and the music is USUALLY appreciated. Also, as posted elsewhere, my tinkering keeps me out of trouble...good way to keep the mind busy and away from other worries that plague us all from time to time.
 
My wife just barely tolerates it, which is cool with me. She never touches anything, and never asks me to play any of the crappy stuff she listens to. :thmbsp:
 
Well, the only family that is ever here is the wife, and she can't stand it! OCD and anal retentive, I can not have a thing in this place that is mine (like an idiot I left my home and moved into hers.... Big mistake!) without it being a screaming match. Plenty of room for all her stupid nick nacks and photos (Most of them of people she doesn't like, or speak to, I dont get it?) I can hardly find room to put the remote for the television down on the coffee table, there are so many damn pictures and stuffed critters. I do understand that I should not have a dozen pairs of large speakers and enough equipment to power up a Who concert, in the livingroom, so I keep it to a minimum. My only space is a 10 by 10 room, with a queen size bed in the middle of it, and that has to hold my personal effects, as well as my collection, as it is not welcome elswhere in the house. I pack what I can into my small corner of the main living room, where I have my computer and PA and mixing equipment. Thats the "Music Room" and home office area as well. I keep a bunch of stuff in a storage shed, but I lose sleep thinking the mice are going to chew up something expensive or irreplacable..... Cant wait for the housing market to drop back to a level I can afford, so we can get a bigger place!!!!
 
My wife is more tolerant now that she has seen some stuff go OUT of the house! She still doesn't care much for the way the Wharfedales look, but she requested the Dynaco A-25's get moved out to the entertainment center.

Tom
 
Needless to say I said nothing, but in my mind I was thinking "guess what? It's NOT your home, bite me!"

I don't think it, I say it.

You don't go into others' houses and tell them how to live, do you? Of course not.

My job, my paycheck, my money, my house, my bills, my food purchased with my money, electricity paid for with my money, my car, my ... well, you get the drift.

Oh, and I forgot, MY living room and MY stereo gear. What, these speakers make it crowded in here? No, I think we can thin out some of this furniture so it is less crowded. THAT chair stays right there, that's MY chair in the "sweet spot".

Anyone that does not appreciate that is welcome to leave. I'm not holding anyone prisoner.

Do NOT put up with that crap. One word said, point at the door and announce, "YOU are welcome to leave."
 
DougMac said:
My grown sons have instructed me to divest myself of my record collection before I die because they don't want it and they don't want to be bothered with its disposition.

Doug
Click to expand...
:eek:
Ouch.

You can leave it to me :yes:
 
jaymanaa said:
My wife just barely tolerates it, which is cool with me. She never touches anything, and never asks me to play any of the crappy stuff she listens to. :thmbsp:
Click to expand...


Man that almost sounds like my wife. Mine could give a rats a_s about my system. She kindly leaves my collection alone, never says a word either. But on the other hand she pretty much thinks my old music sucks as she is a Top 40 nut(I can't stand most new top 40 music), in fact she never requests any songs and has no interest in listening to my system either. She would be happy with a boom box.

Over the years its become so hard to listen to my system with her watching TV shows all evening, that I finally gave up and moved my entire system to the basement about a year ago.

We're almost polar opposites on what we do for personal entertainment. Shes glued to the TV soaps all the time, and I can't stand most of whats on TV.
My parents on the other hand are just "aw" inspired by my collection of equipment and music, and they think its great that I have such diverse tastes in music.

- Mike
 
In my house there is a reasonable level of tolerance, although once I did get a comment from my wife that she did not understand why once in a while I couldn't buy something new. It is hard to explain the BPC concept to my wife when she can't figure out how to run my "complicated" stereo and has a boombox in the livingroom to listen to her music.

My daughter has a nice system that I set up for her which sits cold in her room. She listens to her Aiwa stack that she has had for 10 years. It has a remote - no more to be said.

If anyone is home but me I cannot listen to the main home system. I like James Taylor and to them he is a hick. I like Bluegrass and that is even worse. I have a bedroom system and once in a while I can sequester myself in there and crank up some tunes without disrupting the household. I do most of my serious listening at work in my electrical storage room where I keep my G6000 and my DCM's.

I have 8 receivers at home and it is starting to become a problem. My house is only 950 square feet and, without a garage, Storage is almost nonexistent. There is the attic but in Florida it gets so hot and humid, I am afraid to store good equipment up there. Storing in the shed out back is out of the question because of the roach problem down here. They will get into anything. They even ate the paint off of one of my favorite hardbound books. My wife has not said anything about the receivers lined up in the hallway, but eventually......

I don't have any other family to chime in on my hobby but I am afraid that if they did I would take PaulC's approach to any comments made. I am not always subtle. There are times when subtlety is inappropriate. We are all entitled to live our personal lives as we see fit as long as those that live with us are reasonable, tolerant and work as a team. Stick to your horses.
 
My wife took me out to diner and wanted me to find the Isreal Kamakawiwo'ole CD that has Somewher Over The Rainbow /What A Wonderful World it played in the final credits of 50 First Dates.I found it Facing Future. Had to get the 50 First Dates CD and a Tony Bennett & K.D. Lang's A Wonderful World to finish off that theme. Forgot she slipped Harry Connick, Jr. into the mix. Also Bob Seger's Face The Promise she wanted but that ended up on my list. My never ending list she is always adding stuff to it or helping to check things off it. She was the only girl I ever dated that had a R2R and a album collection that was amazing. She has always wanted me to have all things that make me happy and I her. I have felt very lucky.
 
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