Your Speakers and Your Wife

[Fast_Eddie]

My wife wasn't crazy about the LST2s in the living room. But several of her friends commented when they visited. One actually said "how did you find speakers that look really cool?" She started to come around. She likes the 3s since I made grills for them and bought reproductions of the AR stands.

I bought the 9s one day and got them home without her knowing. But couldn't get them inside alone. They were on the deck when she got home. She walked in the house and simply said "They're going in the basement." Much better than the reaction I was fearing. To the basement they went and have been there ever since.

 

[ev13wt]

When she saw me lugging them into our living room the facial expression was priceless. Some bickering: "How shall those ever fit?"

Once we listened to music she was fine with them. She also liked the look / design of them from the beginning.

Technics SB-6000

 

[markshan]

I'm redoing a set of Barzilays. I'm going to go with my wife to JoAnns and let her pick out the grill fabric. I just want to be sure it is adequately acoustically transparent. Other than that, her choice.

 

[Hyfi]

When I got my Dynaudio 82s, which are big enough, she was OK with them after hearing what they did compared to the ones they replaced.

When I got the Clearfields which are almost double the size, she first begged me not to sell them when I was trying to.(after hearing them) I swap the Clearfields and Dyns out every few months and she always asks me to "put the big ones back".

 

[jhtstone]

indeed!

I'll see your :smlove::thmbsp: and add :thmbsp::zoom::thmbsp: :yes::yes::yes:
A great picture. Best to both of you.

 

[jeremyjustic]

My partner mostly just rolls her eyes at me when talking about gear. I don't think she really cares other then she wants to be able to listen to music. Speakers on the other hand she seems to have some real opinions about, "It's 2014, speakers don't have to be big now, what about those little cube speakers". Luckily she really doesn't put up much of a fight because she knows "the system" is important to me.

 

[crwilli]

My wife is okay with my Betas as they are in the 'cave' which she rarely visits.

But she did ask me what I was planning to do with my RS IIa's and blinked a little when I told her I was thinking of setting them up. She quickly asked "Where?". Told her I didn't know and it dropped there. I will let it lie for awhile. My hope is to put them in the living room - which is rarely used but will likely compromise and setttle on the main section of the basement. She's a great wife!

 

[SuperjazzyJa]

My wife bought me my speakers for my birthday and they're huge! Aren't I lucky?? But that means I can never replace them.

My wife bought me my current receiver for my b'day in '08. I had picked it out. So, when she realized there were some extra bucks lying around, she bought it and gave it to me a month early. Then, we had a plumbing leak that ruined the cabinets of my Yamaha NS-A642s. :tears: I had a pair of cheap Sony bookshelf speakers that I used temporarily. They sounded okay, but.... Between then and tax time, I went into electronic stores as often as possible when she was with me and looked at speakers. She said, "You're really not happy with the Sony speakers are you?" NOPE! Tax refund= Omnisats and a new sub! The omnis sound even better than the Yamahas!

 

[Dr Tinear]

You guys are so lucky. When I scored my dream speakers (Von Schweikert VR-4s) in the used market, my wife took one look at the size of the shipping cartons and said, "Those aren't going in the family room!" They have resided in my unfinished basement ever since. I moved the other components of my main system to the basement and hooked them up to the VRs. She did let me keep a pair of smaller speakers in the family room along with a vintage receiver and a CD player, but that system rarely gets used even as a sound quality upgrade for the TV. Mostly my son's pet rabbit just munches on the speaker cables. :tears:

 

[Yoss15]

@ backmd, Happy healing thoughts headed your wife's way.


It's still a relatively new hobby for me but overall my wife approves of what I've done so far. Though all the set ups are rather modest at this point and I don't necessarily intend to go larger in scale. (We'll see what the future holds. )

She was skeptical of the surround sound, until she heard it. Now she loves it for the big production blockbuster movies. She's also noticed how poor most internal TV speakers are for clear dialogue.

I could tell she thought I was being silly when she saw me putting my stereo speakers on chairs to see how they might benefit from being up on stands. She listened with slightly patronizing amusement as I described a few ways I thought the sound had improved. How I'd been concerned about losing a little bass, but was pleasantly surprised that it really hadn't and that it was now more detailed. She agreed that it sounded nice but not necessarily any better than before. We sat and enjoyed the music for awhile. When I set the speakers back in their usual spots, right away she said "Wow, that actually did sound a lot better being up on stands." That was a pretty good moment.

However, if I ever bring home any truly monster speakers they'll have to go in the basement. And I'm fine with that. Our living room couldn't comfortably fit them anyway.

 

[Hyfi]

You guys are so lucky. When I scored my dream speakers (Von Schweikert VR-4s) in the used market, my wife took one look at the size of the shipping cartons and said, "Those aren't going in the family room!" They have resided in my unfinished basement ever since. I moved the other components of my main system to the basement and hooked them up to the VRs. She did let me keep a pair of smaller speakers in the family room along with a vintage receiver and a CD player, but that system rarely gets used even as a sound quality upgrade for the TV. Mostly my son's pet rabbit just munches on the speaker cables. :tears:

Bummer, those VRs are not even that big.

The Clearfields I referred to in my response above are also 1st generation von Schweikerts when he worked under the Counterpoint umbrella.

Great speakers then and now.

 

[SuperjazzyJa]

You guys are so lucky. When I scored my dream speakers (Von Schweikert VR-4s) in the used market, my wife took one look at the size of the shipping cartons and said, "Those aren't going in the family room!" They have resided in my unfinished basement ever since. I moved the other components of my main system to the basement and hooked them up to the VRs. She did let me keep a pair of smaller speakers in the family room along with a vintage receiver and a CD player, but that system rarely gets used even as a sound quality upgrade for the TV. Mostly my son's pet rabbit just munches on the speaker cables. :tears:

That's why most of us need a music room ( man cave or whatever you want to call it) separate from the living room and family room.

 

[Dr Tinear]

I'd love to have a presentable man cave in the basement. Unfortunately my wife's pet house remodeling projects are all higher on the list than finishing the basement and there's not enough money in the budget to complete even half of them any time soon. I'm afraid that the best target date I can expect for a man cave is the First of Never.

 

[SuperjazzyJa]

I'd love to have a presentable man cave in the basement. Unfortunately my wife's pet house remodeling projects are all higher on the list than finishing the basement and there's not enough money in the budget to complete even half of them any time soon. I'm afraid that the best target date I can expect for a man cave is the First of Never.

I hear ya man. I/we had the good fortune of finding a 4 bedroom house at a good price. Obviously, the master is the largest and my sons' rooms are tied for 2nd. I turned the tiny one into a music room. It's a little smaller than I would like, but it's a space and it's mine. The one advantage is that it's the farthest room in the house from the living room which keeps the sound interfering with the wife's TV at a minimum.

 

[backmd]

Possibly coming home on Friday!

Just like a favorite amp or receiver in the shop, hooked up to fluke multimeters etc. she will come home on IV antibiotics, wound vacuum pumps, hospital bed etc. But she will come home! Thanks for all your happy thoughts and prayers

 

[Kyndcookie]

Part of the reason WAF is so low is our fault. For years we've told women this:



Equals this:

 

[vga911s]

I have never had this problem as I have never had a wife and own my home. My living room is the gear room period!!

 

[mech986]

Part of the reason WAF is so low is our fault. For years we've told women this:



Equals this:

Heh, nice! Of course, it isn't the size of the pencil (or crayon), its how you write your name!

 

[KentTeffeteller]

With my wife, the only decor restriction for us is "Is there room for wheelchairs to pass". She never met a huge JBL, EV, Altec Lansing, or Stephens speaker she did not like. Never met a McIntosh or Marantz tube amp she disliked, or a Fisher or HH Scott classic she disliked, or any Thorens table, EMT table, or any ROK. She loves huge open reel machines, Roundie era Color TV combos, old test equipment, and all the records and tapes she can score. And she loves good musical instruments. And great entertaining. I have a wife who is a keeper. And our two little sons we adopted are superb youngsters.

 

[E-Stat]

Wow, this thread's still going on a year and a half later!

My wife knew what she was getting into 28 years ago. I had eight foot tall Acoustat electrostats in the living room when we were dating. After we married, we finished the basement and I got my first dedicated listening room. Years later, we built the next house and I spec'd a larger listening room having dedicated AC circuits.

In our current home, the listening room is a 25' x16' bedroom upstairs where I have the current stats along with a collection of bass traps and skyline diffusors. In the family room, we have an HT that she uses daily as the resident videophile.