What did you give up?

brad225

brad225

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Location
Wesley Chapel, FL
After posting on Mike's thread "Thinking Back", it started me thinking.

Was there ever a major change to your system because your significant other pleaded with you for it.

For me it was the late 80's and Donna had put up with my system in the living room for almost 20 years.
We had been in Florida for a few years and I had finished building our 1st house there and I was working on designs for furniture in the family room.
I got a desperate pleeeease can we not have big speakers in the family room for a while.

At the time I had a pair of Accoustat panels that were 5+' tall and 30" wide. After much hyperventilating for a week or so, I agreed and packed up the Accoustats.
With that I purchased a pair of Bose,... yes Bose again. Bose Accoustimas Cubes and I set them on 3" square 30" tall columns that matched the new furniture.

They were awful. When Donna saw them she was very appreciative. When she heard them she said "Those sure sound different".

They were around for 2 years before I got permission to start again and purchased a pair of Spica TC50s and a pair of
Vandersteen 2W Subs.

The no listening room in the living/family room didn't come up again until about 2009 when she asked me to build a listening room so everything was finally out of the main living area.

At that time speakers had grown to Martin Logan CLSIIZ.
I obliged her request but we chose to do a substantial renovation to our 900 sq ft house we had been living in for 6 years.

I decided that my listening room would be the last room to be completed as construction would have been delayed if I had music to listen to. My system was packed up for almost 2 years. That was painful but worth it.

We are both happy with the allocation of space. It has gotten us past our 50th anniversary with my music not being an issue.
Well ... other than getting a conservative retired CPA to agree I should spend more on a piece of equipment.
Love always wins out. Sometimes in one direction, sometimes in the other.

Do you have a story?
 
Brad, I was lucky, in the two homes we have owned over our almost 49 years together I've had my own 'Man Cave' in both.

FWIW, I did give up my Corvettes while putting our two sons through school ...... ;)
 
My wife asked me to get rid of the ugly Harbeth’s in the family room and get Vivids or Sopra’s. She likes the look of those. Otherwise, she asked me to get rid of our HiFi racks in the family room. She said they were ugly, so we got something from the Amish.

In my listening room, I do what I want.
 
We had a 4,000+ sq ft custom lake front home in NE Indiana, nice boats at the docks in back, huge garage, etc. It was quite a lovely place in summers, frigid in winters. There was no dedicated listening room in the main house, but we acquired a property down the street on 2 wooded acres, with a 3,000 sq ft former restaurant building. I gutted it and converted it to a 40x30 listening/entertainment area, work from home office, separate home theater room, 30x30x12 heated workshop, plus a 36x48 pole barn for bigger toys. We called it “the Annex”. My dog and I spent a LOT of time there puttering about while still in our working years.

Fast forward a few years ago to retirement, and a move to a small beach house in sunny SW Florida. I refused to "snowbird", so downsizing to a 1200 sq ft 2br elevated home, with no meaningful storage, no garages/shop, no listening room, meant some serious changes.

We threw it all overboard, so to speak. So yeah, I suppose that was giving up a lot, but we embraced it and adapted reasonably well. Then Ian obliterated it, and thankfully, after a couple years, we’ve recovered. Now, I have a nice little living room friendly system that always makes me smile, and as a side benefit, keeps the shiny new gear chase to a minimum. No regrets, as we feel we are very blessed.
 
I’m lucky to have a dedicated music room. My wife is very supportive of my audio/music hobby. I get to set it up and use it as I need to enjoy the music. She does help with the decor as I enjoy a nicely organized and well decorated space - allows me to relax and really enjoy the music.

For the rest of the house, we have an integrated system that plays music and video across all rooms and pool area.
 
Since I do not have any dedicated space, I am lucky that my wife enjoys the music and movies the same as I do. Our Living Room is basically the Audio/HT Room. I have a 2nd 2ch system in the Family Room plus another set of speakers that are driven my a separate Integrated in the LR with outdoor speakers.

Back when I acquired the Clearfield Continentals, I also had a pair of Dynaudio 82s (still in family room now). I would swap the CFs and Dyns every couple months. Usually after a short time with the Dyns, my wife would ask me "Can we put the big ones back now"

If they had only had a little more Bass......I sold them to fund the Fynes but still miss what they did for midrange and soundstage.
 
The only time my wife really put a foot down I mentioned in the other thread, she didn't want EV speakers in the living room with road cabinet carpeted look. At the time my main system was in the living room as the basement was not finished. So I went Infinity Kappa 7's.

In our current house my system is in the lower level and she don't care what I do. The only time she ever chimed in with positive comments is when I was auditioning Revel Studio 2, she thought they looked and sounded great. I really wanted to buy those because of that but couldn't make it happen at the time. She has been great about me spending money on the hobby.
 
Donna could care less about the music quality. She still has an iPod I put music on in her office.

The only comment I do get regularly is "have you dusted and vacuumed lately"?
This is only because I have banned the cleaning people from my room.
 
When we retired and moved to the low country, the only requirement my wife gave me was to eliminate “speakers and boxes all over”. As I have been able to still
Have a dedicated 2 channel trim, that translated to no more home theater.

A simple Sonos Arc and a sub satisfied is both. No, it doesn’t equal my 5.1 McIntosh and Revel system. It doe keep harmony and allows me to have my dedicated 2 channel room.

All I ever hear there is “I would come up here more often if I could watch concert videos”. Hmmm, not going to happen.
 
My wife forced me to abandon tube electronics after our grandaughter grabbed a hot tube with the obvious repercussions. So for after almost a lifetime of tube gear, none for over a decade.
 
We just retired, and moved to be with daughter/grand daughter. My small (9.5x14) listening room was left behind.

We will be looking to buy a house in 2025, and I hope to get at least a slightly bigger listening room. But still not certain. Currently, she is in favor of us finding a home with either some good basement space, or one of the homes with a "family room" usually not on the main floor level. This would be my office/listening room/ with a video setup. Of course I might also end up with a room that will not allow my vinyl rig + paraphanalia, or perhaps even the speaker system. Smallest setup would be the MSB + Blue Hawaii SE + Headphones (praying that does not happen)

We will probably use my 2 channel stereo rig for the video sound output, as I did in my previous space, but won't rule out using a Sonos surround system as well in the room for video. I need to have room to put a loveseat or small couch in position for that. My old room depended on 2 different desk chairs if she came upstairs to watch/listen. With the other TV in the Den, where we hung out together. I think she is hoping to not have a TV in the living room / den at all, which does not bother me.
 
Hey, Mep. I made sure that would never be an issue PRIOR to getting married. She either accepted that I have a dedicated system room (for life) or we didn't get married. It was as simple as that. When we were living in a townhouse and we had a newborn, we did not have the room for both, so into the LR the system went. Couple of years later, we moved and the system is back in its own dedicated room.

With her full support, we will be moving the system once again. I sold the boat (which cleared up room in the shop) and will use most of the shop for a detached from the house dedicated room. It's still in the design phase but this will be built specifically for optimal sound.

Tom
 
treitz3 said:
Hey, Mep. I made sure that would never be an issue PRIOR to getting married. She either accepted that I have a dedicated system room (for life) or we didn't get married. It was as simple as that. When we were living in a townhouse and we had a newborn, we did not have the room for both, so into the LR the system went. Couple of years later, we moved and the system is back in its own dedicated room.

With her full support, we will be moving the system once again. I sold the boat (which cleared up room in the shop) and will use most of the shop for a detached from the house dedicated room. It's still in the design phase but this will be built specifically for optimal sound.

Tom
Click to expand...

Good for you Tom. Good luck with your plans for your new dedicated room!
 
Mr Peabody said:
No wife or you just keep the club hanging on the wall as a reminder who rules the roost?
Click to expand...

Neither. I've only been married once, and I'm currently doing 46-life. There is nothing like having a dedicated stereo room where you call the shots and your wife has zero input on what's inside your room.

Since wives control the decorations/furnishing for basically every room in the house, why shouldn't a man have one room in the house that he can call his? I think it's a reasonable compromise that wives should go along with-no club needed.
 
Being A HT guy never really had any issues with where the gear is. The wife only got involved when first started talking about renovation. She wanted to put the HT it in the basement and I wanted an addition. The addition was always the way to go she didn't want to spend the money. The basement started becoming problematic. A support post had to be moved. I finally got her to come round to the addition now I have dedicated HT 23x17interior, my wife got an ensuite and a dressing room which the house needed, and we got home gym which I use. We use the HT a lot everyone is happy in the end.
In this case Father knows best.

SYSTEM
Speakers Wilson Alexia,Mezzo,4 Alida,s, 6 Dynaudio C600
Amp Boulder 1160, Mark Levinson 533, 2 Parasound A21
Projector JVC NZ8
Screen Stewart Studio 130. 167"
Processor Trinnov Altitude 16

2 CH
Boulder 866 ( likely leaving not enough horse power and to cranky)
Speakers Vimberg Amea
Whole house Bluos
 
Big B said:
Being A HT guy never really had any issues with where the gear is. The wife only got involved when first started talking about renovation. She wanted to put the HT it in the basement and I wanted an addition. The addition was always the way to go she didn't want to spend the money. The basement started becoming problematic. A support post had to be moved. I finally got her to come round to the addition now I have dedicated HT 23x17interior, my wife got an ensuite and a dressing room which the house needed, and we got home gym which I use. We use the HT a lot everyone is happy in the end.
In this case Father knows best.

SYSTEM
Speakers Wilson Alexia,Mezzo,4 Alida,s, 6 Dynaudio C600
Amp Boulder 1160, Mark Levinson 533, 2 Parasound A21
Projector JVC NZ8
Screen Stewart Studio 130. 167"
Processor Trinnov Altitude 16

2 CH
Boulder 866 ( likely leaving not enough horse power and to cranky)
Speakers Vimberg Amea
Whole house Bluos
Click to expand...
Interesting on the 866. Try an INT-250.
 
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