What would you do differently?

Good thread Kirk. I enjoyed reading both the above posts, especially Sarah's-- thanks for sharing your experiences.

I'm married and have "my own" semi-dedicated listening room in which I make all the decisions, and I consider myself lucky in this regard. But WAF prevents me from getting into HT to the extent I'd like. I do have a widescreen TV and DVD player, and can pipe the sound through a good outboard pre-amp/amp/speaker system, but my wife will seldom let me play this system at realistic levels and so I watch many movies with headphones, and I do not have surround speakers-- no point in it as wife refuses to listen to bomb blasts, shooting etc. I like a broad range of movies, and occassionally she will join me in a good Drama. But she is so used to listening to the compressed sound of regular TV and radio, that the dynamics of good quality DVDs bug the hell out of her, and she refuses to tolerate a WIDE dynamic audio range.

So, what would I do differently if not constrained by WAF? I'd have a full blown HT system, a second very good stereo system in the living room, and when the mood stuck me I'd play ZZ Top at "disturbing the peace" levels. Still, on balance, I wouldn't like living alone, and I feel that we've made good compromises under the circumstances. We each have our "own space", and I hardly feel deprived. Cheers. Craig

Sarah

I think it would be best if you stayed single, imagine marrying and becoming one of the 54% who divorce. What a wicked time you'd have spitting up all that audio gear!!

NOTHING, nothing at all. and, BTW, i've been happily married for 37 years and at this hobby for 35+ years. like swampwalker implies don't need to be single and/or lonely to label yourself an "audiophile." indeed, you'd probably be better off (and certainly more financially healthy) were you to acquire a dog, or a pony and a boat.
-cfb

Instead of boxing & selling off all the surplus leftover gear (from tweaking the main rig) I'd use some of those pieces to build 'second' & 'third' systems, each optimized for somewhat different charactaristics. As it is, the boxed up castoffs that I haven't sold as yet are occupying significant floor space which I really should put to some better use.

Bob, In order to ease some of the clutter around your place, i'll come by and pick your "extra" stuff up. Glad to be of help and service to you... : ) Sean
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PS Multiple systems can give you multiple headaches at times : )