Wife trouble

 If your wife is unhappy, you will be unhappy. And if your wife is unhappy long enough, you'll be unhappy with half your stuff..

I have a room in the basement too. We refinished it and my wife told me that my JBL L7s were too ugly for the new space. So I bought a big, beautiful pair of 4' tall rbh floorstanders in a nice maple. She hasn't complained about any of my other gear...

All joking aside, I like being in the basement. I can put up acoustic panels and do weird scheiße that even I wouldn't want to do upstairs. It's nice to have a room optimized for an audio aesthetic, but I prefer my main floor to be optimised for a visual aesthetic.

Stand your ground , if your wife can not(will not) understand your needs do not bend to her tyranny !

I think the biggest problem is that you feel a need to get approval for  your purchases.
She is not your mom.

Separate bank accounts has served both of us extremely well.

Her new shoes makes about as much sense to me as my new DAC makes to her.

I had a bipolar wife!