Girlfriends and wifes, how do YOU cope?

Count your blessings people. I now have an "ex-wife" who gets the "Maybe, I should take him back to court" look in her eyes whenever she notices something new when dropping off the kids. On a positive note, I do get to buy the toys now (new job) that I couldn't afford then.

First: Honestly assess the situation: If the fact that your amp puts out 1200 watts per at 8 ohms doesn't draw even the slightest hint of interest from you significant other, drop that line of conversational openers like a hot potato. You'll only dig a deeper hole with each new technical pronouncement, and may eventually cause her eyes to keep rolling around her head without ceasing - Kind of like the black hole vortex intro to Twilight Zone. Don't laugh - I've seen it and it's not a pretty sight. In fact, you can probably draw on previous experiences with your car to determine if she will buy this one.

Second: If you can get away with this one, go for it. "Honey, you don't really want to know." If she says - "Oh yes I do", go to option 3 - post haste.

Third: Get her involved in the decorating side of the hobby. I have a friend whose wife dismissed the whole HT concept as a colossal waste of money, until she learned of the decorating possibilities. Now she's bugging my buddy to get more, bigger, faster, louder, brighter.... so she can make the HT of her dreams! Be careful, this may unleash a genie you can't put back in the bottle.

Fourth: And this is no bull. Set the system up so she can push one or two buttons and have the thing running. It's how I justified the Crestron. Honey' I've made it easy -see?

But as others have widely shared... if you can make this a family passion and not just yours....you'll have a lot more success for all the right reasons.

Hey, anybody know that Albert Collins song, "Master Charge?" It's on "Ice Pickin'" Okay? Nuff said. Buy the Jota!

Packaging. Try packaging. For instance, this morning I discovered this thread but my wife was in an especially 'chatty' mood. I listened for a while and then I cranked up my Audio Aero CD player wired to my McIntosh 2102 tube amp and put on Santana's 'Supernatural'. Even though I am also a San Francisco boy(Santana is from here-abouts), I don't go out of my way to play Santana. I transferred the music to the living room. As expected, the chat started to go away and now my wife is in the living room reading her People Magazine(I pay for the subscription). Oh, for those of you who might know me form another thread, I wired my system both into the living room and my office for a 'number' of reasons. In this case it allowed my to finish this thread. So, lesson +1: Go out of your way to play her music. You don't have to fake liking it; she always knows....(.) Lesson #2: When making a bigger change, give her something to expect that she can have some control over. When we bought our home the back yard is quite big and the back two-thirds was an undeveloped hillside. I terraced the whole thing and I have quite the orchard and vegetable garden. She never goes down there. However, just outside the kitchen door is a 10x25 foot rose garden(all raised beds) with 42 differant roses. She does go out there. I spent last weekend weeding the thing.....ouch!) So, my next project is to do an addition to the front of our house because I want my own a nicer office/music room. I am calling it the new 'library/comupter-room'. So, this means the computer is moved from a smaller room off from the kitchen that will become a charming breakfast room--she can't wait to have what will obviously become 'her room'. Remember, it is all in the packaging.

08-11-02: Tireguy,

I would not agree more!