Wife Acceptance Factor

If she gets antsy tell her what sort of stuff other men get into. Let's see... first there are the golfers. Gone at the crack of dawn every Saturday & Sunday and back in time for dinner, leaving her to do all the chores and look after the kids... Then there are the drinkers. And how about the amateur stock car racers? And how could we forget the outdoor fanatics who disappear on two week fishing trips with their buddies a 2 or 3 times a year? Skirt chasers? Survivalists? Print up a list and put it up on the wall over your horn speakers!

My fiance was more accepting of my hobby than my wife is.
Get everything you dream of right now.
If it urks her now, and she forces you to choose between the stereo or her, obviously take the stereo, and chalk it up to lessons learned inexpensively.
Once you 'buy' (re: marry) her, it gets MUCH more expensive to have these differences. They know that, and take full advantage.

Ask her if she is willin to give jewerlry

Funny thing at home last night. Had a discussion (I did not initiate this!) about some new jewelry that my wife just bought that day. The conversation was going well about how her new earrings would look with her new necklace and, for some reason, she said that I was not, in essence, enthusiastic enough. Groan. Well, says I, I really do appreciate the jewelry as I understand YOUR happiness and enthusiasm about what you like, just like I do with my audio. Well, that extracted one of those silent moments (felt like a week) with a look. “You aren’t really comparing your audio stuff to my jewelry, are you?”
It kind of went downhill from there. You know what I mean.
Sigh.

I'm blessed to have a wife who is not only accepting of my hobby, but sometimes actually encourages it. One night after putting in some very expensive ICs to demo, she listened and said "you can't take those back!" She's also "given" me what was a more formal, and sizeable, living room to dedicate to audio, including panels, traps etc. The only thing she inisists on is that I don't make her do critical listening or A/B testing with new gear. She wants to listen to music, not gear.

On the other hand, I try and seek her input on what she would like to see. She insisted that my last two sets of speakers be done in real rosewood and that my rack be relatively nice to look at. No problem, I like good looking gear too. Since she also likes to listen several times a week, I'm buying new furniture for the room that pleases her.

My advice is to make certain her basic needs are well taken care of first, and then try and engage her in the music end of the hobby. Find out what she really likes to listen to and build a catalog for her. Oh, and get a listening chair that's big enough for the two of you to snuggle up in. It's one of the best tweaks I know for enhancing the musical experience.