Why are all the Virtual Systems mega-assaults now?

The $10,000 figure was hyperbole. My wife knows what each item in the system costs to within 15% I would guess. She probably doesn't think of things like cables and such if she were pressed to come up with an exact figure. It is a situation where I believe she would rather not know exactly what this stuff costs. I do firmly believe that she thinks a stereo over 10,000 is excessive, but we have the means, so it's OK. (That's what I keep telling myself :-)) Anyway, Lying to one's spouse (in my opinion) is never acceptable. Therefore I never do it. She may ask, I'll start stuttering, then she will say never mind.

Just reread your message Douglas. That was pretty aggressive and presumptuous. A bit of a high price to pay for a joke, no?

Bflowers, you are looking at deception only from the positive form - actually speaking something false. There is also a negative form, a passive form, which involves withholding information. It is just as problematic. A person who withholds requested information is wrong to consider himself as not having lied just because he kept from stating something false.

Hence the stuttering, as it would be in your mind a "lie" to state something misleading. But you may want to withhold critical information and justify that as not lying because you didn't actually say something false.

"She may ask..." means she has asked and you have balked, knowing the information would not be taken well.

Withholding important information from the spouse is a passive form of lying. It usually requires a list of justifications in the mind.

A man is either going to be straight with his wife or not. Being straight/transparent means she knows the truth about what SHE wants to know when she asks, not what you want her to know. And you won't have to stutter for more than a nanosecond.

Your wife must love you very much. It seems she sees you struggling with it, not wanting to actively lie and she drops it so as to ease your conscience, and also likely she may fear what money is being spent. My guess is she knows the equipment costs far, far more than she would ever want to be spent on it. It also seems she's not given a say in the matter, and it's likely this bothers her. Over time that can build resentment. You may find it very productive to discuss the issue with her.

Check mine out! Not an uber-assault by any means, but for a small space I would stack it up against systems costing 5 times as much. There is so much 'show-off' gear out there for mindless money'd guys to play with. The art of slowly crafting a space over years must be upheld as a virtue in its own right. The big flashy systems might sound great, but I have definitely heard some that did not. But they still looked the part.

No need to include Albert Porter in this thread. He is audiogon royalty.

Actually, what we need are more Albert-Porter-like gentlemen and less aggressive competitive nonsense!

Where's the love?