Wife Acceptance Factor

WAF comes into play in two ways: how much money can be spent, and also how acceptable your purchases are as decor.

Naturally, unless you have so much money and so much room that you can carve out a niche that doesn't affect her at all, you would be dealing with shared money and space. So it is good to start by accepting that she does have a legitimate stake and may have reasonable wishes. Then you can fight her truly unreasonable demands. :-)

I am lucky with WAF, partly because my wife is a music lover and likes the end result. Visually, she would have preferred sleek and matched components (B&O or Bose type looks come to mind) to the hodge podge I have assembled, but it is tolerated. It helps to give in on non-essentials, as when I let her choose the shelf in which the components are kept. Not what I would have picked but such compromises buy me more freedom in the audible arena that I care about.

Dave
I worked with a guy whose Wife gave him a weekly allowance for lunch. If he wanted to buy something for himself, he had to ask.

In every relationship, there's a "Male" and "Female"

Shut up damn you, don't ruin my fantasy!!!

J/K

Don't get my original post wrong BTW. I'm happily married (if that tired cliche really exists as more than an oxymoron...). My wife knows how much I spent and on what. My system is only around $25-30K (will be around or over $30k when I upgrade the TV). I have my own private office/listening room in the basement that is around 40 ft by 20 ft in size, give or take (more than half is my listening room home theatre space). I do have to compensate my wife for making my resent purchases, but admittedly her requests were not nearly as expensive (but it is all money I brought to the marriage, which is why she is not unreasonable about it). She is not happy about the things I have bought, but she lives with it. I didn’t sneak around, but I certainly didn’t advertise, though I never lied about it when asked.

I started out by saying, "most of the women who are wives in my area", because it is true for most women I have met, and what I said about men is true about most men I have met. Actually, I am exaggerating; most of the men I have met are whipped and afraid to stand up for a few privileges in the houses that they pay for, as per the reclining chair example. Not compromising enough to let your husband have one chair he enjoys sitting in, in the den no less, is sadistic IMO, especially since it can be upholstered to match any decor. Albeit my wife has the rest of the house and picks everything, but I still have recliners in the den!

Let's face it most (not all) women just don't get the audio thing. My wife just thinks I'm half nuts when I get the upgrade bug. I try tp make sound, thoughtful purchases that don't waste money by usually buying used equipment. We have had some interesting "discussions" over the years but I'm usually creative in finding a way to make it work. To be fair I don't get the shopping trips for clothes, shoes etc. that in a couple of years end up in the donation pile to the local charities. Go figure.