Rphare, I'll trade, even up, sight unseen. |
My wife of 18 years has progressed from kindly indifference to my music listening, to that of an enthusiastic participant. When we married I was lugging DQ-10s on custom stands from home to home - which took huge understanding on her part. She really got game when I had her sit down some years ago and she instantly heard the effects of Magic Bricks on the amps. She's a great cook and encourages our dinner guests to catch the sweet spot after a culinary feast. We often end up spinning vinyl 'til well after midnight with friends. We attended a couple of concerts recently; one with Jann Arden taping for a live concert album and the other, Pat Metheny. She commented on the poor sound of Jann and loved Pat and Group - but said she'd kill me if I played him that loud in our listening room. And now she understands my absolute need to replace the Akito on my LP12 with an Ekos/Arkiv. God bless. |
My wife has never cared for my hobby. She did before we got married, but then, alas, I found out it was all an act. We've been married for 18 years. She floored me the other day though, when she finally broke down and admitted that my $25,000 system sound better than her little speakers at work. She wouldn't go into details, but for years, she always said it all sounds the same to her. So if my $25K system can now beat her $25 system, there may be hope for her yet.
John |
Today we moved our speakers to the sweet spot while playing around. It turned out to be a great improvement in bass accompanied by a decrease in the harshness of the highs. She thinks we shouldn't touch anything now although our living room looks really weird. But hey it beats upgrading anything. |
My wife actually instruced our cleaning lady to not move the speakers. I found out because the cleaning lady came and complained to me. So I asked my wife why she did this, because I had never openly complained about having to move the speakers back in the right place weekly. My wife informed me that the system 'just didn't sound right at all' when the speakers were off. I was greatly surprised, as she makes fun of the hobby, but she claims to hear the difference. |
My wife really got into the whole 'sound room' idea, she painted the room herself, picked up some cool lights (some disco light, a really neat multi color light that spins to the music, etc.), curtains, even put foam between the curtains and the window!
We have a mega-changer, and I hooked it up to the S-link-e, and through the computer in our computer room, we can control the tunes.
We take turns adding songs to the playlist, or we'll pick music we think the other will like, or we'll play songs for each other, or we'll select songs that we think are the other's favorites. We save the playlist, and other time we'll reload old playlists and relax.
It's really a blast, this started as my crazy little game but she loves it as much as I do now. It's become a legitimate home improvement. I can't begin to tell you guys how great it is. We'll sometimes go through 6 or even 8 hours of music at a time.
Oh, and the convertible sofa bed... ooo baby...
KP |
My wife has zero interest in this hobby, in fact it drives her crazy, but she tells it like it is about how something sounds and I appreciate her unbiased opinion when I'm too into something. |
Like Craig above, my wife has pretty much zero interest in the stereo, but has made a few comments over the past couple of years indicating she knows that it is not run of the mill stuff. After seeing Diana Krall live in a local venue with less than stellar acoustics two years ago she said: "She sounds better in the living room at home." She also commented recently on how crappy the boom box at work sounded with some pop music, and suggested that after hearing the CD there, she couldn't get excited about buying it. |
My wife has almost zero interest in my stereo system-- sad but true. But she is VERY attuned to my moods regarding the present state of the "Big Rig". Cheers? Craig |
Women hear better, listen better, and that is why for the most part they are not interested in our hobby of "toy" collecting. Don't shoot this is just my humble opinion. |
My wife can hear anything abnormal/wrong @ much lower volume levels than I (especially in the HF's). She also loves music as much as I, but unfortunately after burning herself on a 300B tube (and damaging the tube in the process) she has not been using the system herself very much (even though I sold this particular amp a few months ago and have the other tube pieces out of the way). I am sorry that she burned herself (the power switch was on the back of the amp), but the tube was no big deal and she knows this (I sold the amp with two good sets of spare output tubes). Anyway, I think that I will again reconfigure the setup to make it even more user friendly and see if this works. On a funny side note she just discovered yesterday that her psychiatrist is an audiophile. I don't know how it came up in the session, but the conversation drifted toward questions about our gear. I think that I will tag along to the next session. LOL. |
My wife is the same way too, it's great to have neutral opinion handy. She doen't care one iota about any of the tech-terms or science (and pseudo-science...) behind this madness. But she will tell me if she thinks it sounds better or not.
It was her remarks that got me going down this audio path again.
some highlights:
She noticed a change in the sound for the better, and all I'd done was change speaker cables. She had no idea I'd done anyhting. Before I had made the change, she said it sound as if it was 'struggling.' We'd moved into a new house few months before and I had the 'better' cables pacdked away and had not bothered to change them.
She noticed when I changed a PC (at the time, I doubted that PC's made any difference, and was ready to put off what I'd heard as self-fulfilling pyschosis), as well as when I changed a digital IC ('hey, that sounds smoother').
She also picked up on what turned out to be a fuse going bad inside one of our amps two days before it became so clear even I noticed it...
KP |
most any woman can hear better so this comes as no surprise. Congratulations; you definitely have an audiophile girlfriend there so you'd better get her to the jewlers asap; that one is a keeper for sure.
My own situation is quite similar: she can pick out & accurately charactarize most any change that I've made to the rig, often without even being told that a change was made. She's truly a great "blind auditioner". Sal you're in good company there. |
