2. misc-audio
  3. 992192468

Priorities, who makes the rules anyway?

I'm putting this on the table for two reasons, 1) I am tired of 'which amp for my speakers' threads, and 2) I am right.

Most everyone I know thinks I am a crazy-man. They refer to me as the one who has taken home entertainment to the "extreme." My question is, where'd they get that idea? Generally speaking: the average upper-middle-class yupster walks into a car dealer and plops down $???$ without thinking twice. Next they slice the price into monthly payments, add interest and insure it, all for the low, low, price of what...say, $35k (for arguments sake). Now throw another in for the wife. Where are we now, $70k in cars? The point. This sort of average behavior is thought of as completely reasonable and rational in most circumstances.

On the other hand, a guy like me (or we) who throw(s) down anything approaching (or even half) the total amount of the car, much less both cars, on home entertainment stuff, is a nutcase (or bunch of them if all of you are still on board) with out of whack priorities. What is with this? I enjoy my HT system way more than I enjoy my car. I spend more time at home with my HT system, or at least try to. All else equal I would rather drive a junker pick-up and come home to a plasma flatscreen, than any other, another way around. For me, this is true, even if it's just to watch the news. (The real point, as you may have guessed--I am talking myself into spending more). I NEED that flatscreen. I do.

When are we going to start thinking of home entertainment the same as we do cars? As it is for most, high dollar home entertainment is still thought of as a guilty pleasure.
j_thunders
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
you can be addicted to audio gear or cars or drugs. it's when you crave two or more of these or other exspensive items that you need to set priorities. -kelly
bmpnyc
713 posts
 
Kitch29 makes a good point, but I never needed a car for that purpose, Viva New York City!
aragain
39 posts
 
A greater man than me said it all. You just have to believe that you are entitled to be 'you' regardless of what others think.

Another way of saying it: "Your opinion of me is none of my business."
kthomas
911 posts
 
I had a lot of fun in my house last fall when my daughter, a budding cellist, decided that she needed a better cello. She had been using the basic "student" cello she had began with, and was a few years into playing and had really taken to it, practicing hours a day with no pushing from her parents, so I had no problem understanding that she desired something "better".

However, after a few years of crazy looks and exasperated comments about the upgrades I've done to my home system (probably one major upgrade a year), I didn't miss the opportunity to turn the questions around. "Why do you need a new one when you've already got one the works". "What makes a different one better - does it have more strings or something?" "Do you realize we could spend that money on something I want instead?"

After extracting a modest amount of pain with that type of question, I got a little more serious and asked her to explain to me (seriously) what she was hoping to achieve with this "upgrade". She started by telling me that "I just wouldn't understand". I thought this was interesting because when I upgrade the audio system, I'd LOVE it if somebody expressed and interest in what I was trying to accomplish and wanted to hear it for themselves. I insisted that I could understand, at least somewhat, and then my wife got involved in trying to answer the question, which made it a really good exercise. I haven't done a major upgrade since then, so I don't know if it will have a lasting effect, but it was fun to turn the game around.

I have also tried, over time and somewhat unsuccessfully, to point out that if you add up everything I've ever spent on A/V gear, it's less than the kitchen remodel my wife wants to do, probably not much more than the bathroom remodel we've already done, etc. I sometimes think it's another version of the old deal of the differences between how men and women keep "score" - men have different amounts of points earned depending on the quality of the act, while women tend to count things as one point each. I think I could convince my wife to let me spend $50K all at once on a system without a lot more difficulty than convincing her to let me spend $5K five times. I don't think she understands that I enjoy it a lot more spending money over the course of time and experimenting.

Great topic! - Kirk

stereokarter
185 posts
 
Re: ....normal....J_thunders you overestimate your estimation of our opinion of thyself, if you accept that I speak for "Our".
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