The Mechanics of WAF

I think a lot of the WAF claims is ads are white lies. I think in many of the cases the seller didn't like the sound of the speakers and is trying to unload them. I mean, would YOU buy speakers that someone says don't sound good? One would like to think it wouldn't matter, but audiophiles seems to be easily influenced by the written word and word of mouth - instead of their own ears.

As for WAF: I see where 7 foot tall, 1400lb behemoths might not work in most rooms, even large dedicated ones. But to me, the inverse is also true. If my wife were to redecorate the house and say, "sorry, there's no room for your stereo. You'll need to get one that you can hide." "Sorry sweetie. I'm moving in the 20.1/Rs then." I don't succumb to her 100% of the time and neither does she to me. Welcome to married life.

Luckily my wife shares my passion for music, so it's an easy compromise. But she does enjoy getting me to admit that often it's more about the gear or recording artifacts than about the music. Guilty as charged.

Does it come to the point when she'd say:
"You can have either speakers or me. You can't have both, so choose...."
If not than you can keep both.

the way i see it...

Hi-fi is about communication....Wifes are about communication.Life is about communication.

Hearing some of the answers and set ups here on the GON ...I wonder how it is that some guys are getting all 3 wrong....

Just a thought....no flames please.

Happy Wife = Happy Life

That's a pretty simplistic answer. I find much to agree with in many of the posts already. Onhwy61 nailed my faults to a tea...and Mechans illustrates a mirror story to mine as well. Knowing how much my wife would object I brought a pair of LaScala's into our relatively small home and inserted them into our living room hoping to hide them or at least camolflauge them with a few vases of fresh flowers and maybe a box of chocalates. Take my word for it, the flowers and the chocalates were not the first thing she saw. I managed to keep them around for many (musically enjoyable) months, but it was at the expense of an overall tension. Like Mechans, my wife is trained as a musician (though she no longer plays that is what her degree is in after 20 years of violin). Like Mechans' wife also, my wife loved the way the Scala's sound and could certainly appreciate that difference. But true to form, she put a strong priority on the visual appeal, or lack thereof, of the Scalas, and strongly preferred something better looking and of more modest size. I eventually gave in and brought the Scala's to work to listen there (I'm lucky in that I had a space to set up my system outside our house). I'm sure some ads are just looking for excuses to make sure folks don't think there could possibly be anything wrong with their speakers, while others truly do face the WAF dillema ("willfull ignorance" is a great term). To be fair, and try to understand at least one of the mechanisim's that may be involved, imagine if your wife came home with two big stuffed pink bunnys, the size of your fridge, and insisted that the bunnys have a very prominent home at opposite corners in your living room. If stuffed pink bunnies actually make you happy, and perhaps even already reside in your living room than substitute something else large and quite unattractive (to you), and perhaps distincly feminine, and imagine that showing up one day, compliments of your wife, as a fixture in your home for all to see anytime they visited. Did I get that right dear?

Marco

It's a tradeoff. That's how I ended up with both a HT room and a 2-channel room and FOUR DOGS. At least she can't ask for horses anymore since we've moved. Now, I'm kinda into downsizing and we still have FOUR DOGS. Apparently downsizing only applies to audio.