Girlfriends and wifes, how do YOU cope?

It was simple for me....I guess I was lucky.

Get a dog. My wife wants me to get a solid state integrated so we can leave it on for the dog while we're at work. She wants to keep the tubes as well. I'm going to listen to a slightly used Marantz 11s2 tomorrow afternoon on behalf of my dog Oscar.

I'm going to listen to a slightly used Marantz 11s2 tomorrow afternoon on behalf of my dog Oscar.

You should refer to the Marantz as the Oscar Award.

lol!!!!! Good call Albert. Whatever we end up with will be referred to as the Oscar Award. The Marantz didn't do it for me although I loved the fit and finish. My favorite by a huge margin is the Hegel H200 which I find to be the ugliest thing I've ever seen. I might have to refer to it as the Ugly Oscar Award.

Our deal is simple, I do not use the family money for this hobby. I will buy,sell, barter, or whatever to fund this hobby. Last year I bought out a complete house of Audio Design Associates gear. It took me a while to sell but I bought a Conrad Johnson Classic 2SE preamp brand new (with the help of my pre as a trade) a pair of Revel M106 monitors and a YBA headphone/dac with the profit. Plus I gave my wife $500 of that cash to spend on herself...

Then I sold the gear I was no longer using and with that money I bought a NAD M51 DAC plus had $300 left over.

So with my initial investment of $1k , minus the $500 I really was only $200 out of pocket after an awesome upgrade.

The other way I cope is I got smart and put the 52" TV in our front family room......good way to get your listening room back. No one wanted to watch TV in our den on a 32" 720p TV.....I must say it was brilliant !!!! After the family was conditioned and had acclimated to their new hangout I picked up a 47" LED, which by the was does not count as an audio expenditure .....