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Wives, stereo components & living spaces

sandvhay

sandvhay

New Member
I'm curious how many of you have significant others that put up with having stereo components, speakers, turntables, records, etc being in your main living space/living room. In my constant hunt for vinyl I run into guys who's stereo set-up is relegated to the garage, downstairs, office, or man cave and never allowed in the main living area. This kind of baffles me and I wonder why can you or cant' you have components in your living area?

My wife is in charge of decor and usually (read "always") has the last word when it comes to making our house a home. When I got back into vinyl she was perfectly okay with having a set-up in the living room as long as she was the one to pick out the furniture where the componenets and LPs would be, as long as the speakers weren't big, boxy & ugly, and as long as she had her own stack of LPs. All things I could work with!

What's your story/situation?

Regards, Steve
 
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My wife has never complained about the stereo gear that infests most rooms of our house. The one time she said anything was when I wanted to put a stereo in the guest room - she said "no way!"
 
My main system is in the basement. While I could put it in the living room, itll interfere with her TV watching. There arent many things that get in the way of her and TV, and music definitely isnt on the list :lmao:
 
sandvhay said:
I'm curious how many of you have significant others that put up with having stereo components, speakers, turntables, records, etc being in your main living space/living room.

My wife is in charge of decor and usually (read "always") has the last word when it comes to making our house a home. When I got back into vinyl she was perfectly okay with having a set-up in the living room as long as she was the one to pick out the furniture where the componenets and LPs would be, as long as the speakers weren't big, boxy & ugly, and as long as she had her own stack of LPs. All things I could work with!

What's your story/situation?

Regards, Steve
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RichPA said:
My wife has never complained about the stereo gear that infests most rooms of our house. The one time she said anything was when I wanted to put a stereo in the guest room - she said "no way!"
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You guys are lucky. I'm expressly forbidden to put any audio equipment in areas other than the family room, dining room, foyer, kids computer room, master bedroom, kids bedrooms, hallways, dormer room, attic, mudroom, mudroom bathroom, basement, attached garage, and detached garage. It's the law around here.
 
The main rig is indeed in the basement (mainly so I can crank it after the girls go to sleep), but it took a few years of persuasion before I could get a system set up in the living room.

The missus likes a very clean, uncluttered layout, and she objected to "ugly electronics" in the living room. We don't even have a TV. One day when she was lamenting the tinny sound coming from her MacBook (her sole source of electronic entertainment) I grabbed the opportunity to comment on how good "her" music would sound played back through a proper stereo rig, and brought upstairs some extra gear and set it up for a "demonstration." She liked what she heard and the stereo stayed put in the living room.

The trick is in finding a mutually agreeable compromise: the stereo gear is placed in an out-of-the-way corner, where it doesn't compromise her vision of how to decorate the room, and the wood-veniered speakers (ADS L9e's) visually compliment the hard wood floors.

Many nights while preparing dinner or whatever, the missus will say, "Jazz, please!" and that's my cue to skeedaddle downstairs to pick out a record for us to enjoy.
 
Stereo comes first, Women second. What else can get the hotties dancing and groovin, or even getn hot and taking off there overly warm sweaters from moving around dancing.
 
Ohighway said:
You guys are lucky. I'm expressly forbidden to put any audio equipment in areas other than the family room, dining room, foyer, kids computer room, master bedroom, kids bedrooms, hallways, dormer room, attic, mudroom, mudroom bathroom, basement, attached garage, and detached garage. It's the law around here.
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:lmao::lmao::lmao:

I have the same problem! She fell in love with the Altec 710, Dual 1218 and Bose 501's I gave her for the dining room though, so things worked out OK...:tongue:
 
Ohighway said:
You guys are lucky. I'm expressly forbidden to put any audio equipment in areas other than the family room, dining room, foyer, kids computer room, master bedroom, kids bedrooms, hallways, dormer room, attic, mudroom, mudroom bathroom, basement, attached garage, and detached garage. It's the law around here.
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What?!!! No stereo in the Kitchen?? :yikes:
 
roger2 said:
What?!!! No stereo in the Kitchen?? :yikes:
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It's in the works. Just a week ago I got four Boston A40s to mount up high in the corners of the kitchen. Their dark cabinets will almost perfectly match the new kitchen cabinets slated for installation. They'll run off a system in my adjacent office....
 
My lovely better half enjoys listening as much as I do. She also has much better taste in terms of not letting things get out of control.

I look back at some of the setups and hoards of gear I had in the past, and quite frankly, some of it was embarassing. So I'm happy to work together to have something that sounds good, and is presentable, in the main living area, and keep the clutter relegated to the workshop.

bs
 
Can't blame the lady of the house. She is almost always right.

Let's face it.

If it was up to us, we would have all kinds of crap all over the place.

Your significant other would probably like her home look like a home. Not a recording studio. Can't blame her. After all, it is her home just as much as it is yours.

I don't think she would have a problem if you decided to set up speakers in the living room whereby the speakers looked like pieces of furniture instead of industrial covered boxes meant for a Rolling Stones concert.

There is a difference.

Tastefully done you can incorporate "stuff" into your living quarters. It shouldn't have to be an eye-sore for anyone.

At the end of the day, a happy wife is a happy life.

This is so true.
 
Never had a problem. My wife knew I was into music when we met and it has always been in our main living areas. I grew up in a house where we had a formal living room that nobody ever used and a formal dining room that was only used on Thanksgiving. I always felt this was a waste. Every room in my house is for living (and music and movies and reading and anything else you want to do).

Take off your shoes, put your feet up, and make yourself at home.
 
My wife is extremely understanding but we have a few mutual agreements. One is that I keep costs down, either by selling gear and making profit to buy better gear or just finding it dirt cheap. So far I've done very well with that. Because of that, she's more forgiving and understanding of where gear is. I've got two systems in an apartment, and in fact one of the bedrooms of this two bedroom apartment is completely dedicated to the main stereo. The other one is by the TV where she watches and she uses it for radio listening and occasionally some classical music when she desires.

It's all about compromise and finding a happy medium. She's a part of it too. :yes:
 
No significant other here so the stuff goes where it can. I'm in an apartment. Two systems: one in the livingroom which is an HT system as well as a 2-channel. One in the bedroom which is the vintage system. Livingroom system is presentable and the speakers are anything but ugly. Bedroom system Sansui 8080db (currently) Pioneer PL510 TT on a VTI rack and DCM TF speakers...hey, wait a minute, what's not pretty about that? (Especially when she's lit up).:D:music:
That said though, while I consider this a solitary hobby and exercise for the most part, I would not mind chancing upon the right girl who shares the love of music openly to couple up with...well, we can all dream I guess.
 
My wife is awesome. Her only requirement is that I do my best to hide all the cables and wiring. Other than that, she enjoys the main rig in the living room almost as much as I do, and doesn't even flinch when some largish speakers rotate through. She even asked that I teach her how to use it, and most times I will come home from work and she'll have something playing. I mentioned once that some guys aren't allowed to have decent sized setup in the house and that I appreciated the freedom to do pretty much what I want. She gave me a strange look and said "Why shouldn't you? This is your space too." :thmbsp:
 
I could show you some old pictures of my livingroom that would make your head spin.. or rather your wife's...
 
Back when I was starting to spend real money of this stuff, my wife "gave" me the living room. Not that she was ever the type to hold a tight grasp on anything we share.

But she supports my happiness and this makes me happy.

There are pics in my sig. The wife had nothing to do with it (except we already had the couch and chair when we moved in)
 
Six systems and no complaints yet.

Listening/Jam/Shop Room system - stacked RS6000/Toby - continuous work in progress
Bedroom system - kit tube amp w/bookshelf speakers
Bird Room system - Scott with Utah's (birds love jazz)
Living Room system - Onkyo surround - 2 subs
Game Room system - Sansui with Technics (pumps bass/treble and no loss if smashed)
Garage system - Cambridge (Bose Wave clone - or is Bose the clone?) Might swap with birds

Garage has at least 5 pairs of speakers work in progress at any time. Components stashed in closets here and there. Looked at some giant Econowaves earlier... Never really thought about it but guess I am pretty lucky in the SF not caring about my systems dept. But I sure would like to be done and just listen!
 
I'm pretty lucky in this regard. She loves listening to music on a good system so we have a very nice setup in our family room where we spend most of our time and entertain. She especially likes accessing Mog through the ipad to play old and new music. :thmbsp: Unfortunately, she doesn't see any need to experiment or upgrade. :no:

I have another great system in my office where I can satisfy those elements. :yes: I work at home much of the time and listen in there even more than the family room. She does occasionally throw an evil eye at some of the gear in there but seeing as it's not cluttering up the rest of the house, she can live with it.
 
Crown PSA2,Jolidas, EMO DACS ARs and DQ10s are in my office.
Sansui AU7700 system in the master bedroom
Sansui G5700 and KLH 23s are in my teenage sons room (he pretty muched hijacked it from me but better than a damn IPOD player!).
Downstair theater Yammy DVDS-2700, RXV867 Carver AV-705X Polk RTI 12s CSIA6 FXI5 and a HSU VTF15H
Upstair gameroom theater Yammy RXV1600 Polk RTI 12s CSI5 Def tech monitor 800 HSU VTF-1

My wife picked the RTi 12s and loves the sound of all the different systems so I am lucky in that respect we made an agreement the theater systems and my office are mine to setup the systems. She gets full control of picking out the decor and furniture this has appeared to work and we keep all the rooms clean and classy so the systems blend in as part of the decor.
 
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