The wife has spoken!!! (1 Viewer)

[Yee-Ming]

Two Christmases ago she gave me a Yamaha RXV995 A/V receiver and for my birthday last year a Servo 15 and the Studio CC center channel.

sounds like the reverse of the old cliche where a husband buys his wife power tools as presents! you are one lucky person to have a spouse as nuts about HT as you!
come to think of it, there must be instances where it's the other way around, i.e. where the wife/GF is the HT nut and the husband/BF is indifferent? any lady HTFers care to add their stories of woe? (I note so far it does not appear that any female members have posted in this thread.)

 

[Guy Usher]

Rory, I will only paint what I can take off, looking inside was a treat, I dont know if this is typical of amps exposed to the elements but seems like it has been wet, at least some rust here and there, boy what a power supply and two big caps the size of a quart oil can, 10 output transisters per channel, bi-polar, they said you could light a small town or use it as a welder. . . I believe it. . . Now if only I had a big enough circuit to put this bad boy on. . . Dont know if my SVS will hate me or love me but it is fixing to get serious, I do have a couple old woofers in the garage that I have wanted to over extend for a long time, I will spearmint on those first. . .

 

[MarcVH]

To the original poster, the first thing you need to do is work out what it is your wife is really feeling about this. She could mean what she says at face value about the decor, or she could be afraid that having too many visible signs of guy-dom around will cause her female friends to think she hasn't done a good job of civilizing you. Or she could be saying that she is worried that you will end up spending more time playing with your subwoofer than talking with her about her feelings. Or maybe she's afraid that having bass will disturb the neighbors and disrupt her social status. Who knows?

Maybe you need to buy a DVD of a chick flick that has a lot of bass (hmmm... are there any of those?)

Speaking of, my wife got me a BFD (sub eq) for Christmas. She's fine with the fact that I have dual SVS cylinders in the living room, although she does prefer that I wait until she's out to play 35 Hz test tones. I guess that's fair enough.

 

[John Welch]

All I will say about my wife is see my sig. She has had input into every single purchase and bought the 2 SVS for me on 2 consecutive birthdays. We have a dedicated room and she has had much input in the movie collection, which totals about 900 laserdiscs and 750 DVDs. Enough said.

 

[Bill Griffith]

Ha, I love this.

Its good to see my wife is for the most part normal.

When I was getting ready to purchase my fronts for my HT system, my wife said she wanted small speakers similar to the Bose cubes (I was drunk and in another country when I bought those, so blame the irish bar, not me) I have/had. I told her if I bought small cubes they wouldn't sound goo for her music and they would cost more, hehe.

The the sub discussion, she didn't think we needed one. It was so sad, I almost cried. She said we had enough base with the setup we had (Bose). I got the Sub with my money, after preparing her for 2 months. Once in the house and she heard it she likes it.

But everytime its like a little battle, and here are some things I've discovered.

1. Give them plenty of warning, a couple of months at least. Prepare them for your inevitable purchase. Have many discussions concerning the subject. As the purchase time approaches start acting crazy like you really need them.

2. Call her from work, and say " I've got something to tell you" build it up and make her think its something horrible without actually telling her its something horrible. The idea is to get her to think someone is dying or you got fired. that way when you tell her your buying the unit its more of a relief. Plus you've been preparing her.

Then if all else fails its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

These methods seem to work for me. I've also been told that flowers work well also. But its hard for me to buy something that has no repeated use and dies shortly after the purchase.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Give them plenty of warning

sounds reasonable. I didn't make full disclosure of what an SVS looked like and just how big it actually was, so when she first saw it she nearly flipped.
then again, I wasn't really prepared for how big the SVS was either... and I have the baby 25-31

 

[Jeff Kohn]

sounds reasonable. I didn't make full disclosure of what an SVS looked like and just how big it actually was, so when she first saw it she nearly flipped.

Heh, tell me about it. First time my wife saw the 20-39 she asked me if it was a joke. She never tried to get me to send it back, though.

 

[AaronJB]

She wouldn't like the subwoofer of the Onkyo SKSHT-500 speaker set (a very nice set that goes for around 275), then. It's about 2-2 1/2 feet tall and 30 pounds.

 

[Andy Sz]

Just an update on the wife situation:
She wants to audition the Bose AM6III now since she was so impressed with them at the local Best Buy. I tried to explain to her all of the horrible things I've read here on the forum but she insists on listening to them at home.
So........I'm going to be auditioning the Bose this weekend.
WISH ME LUCK!

 

[Kip Lackey]

LOL, this is a funny thread. In our new house, the wife forced me to move the theater to the basement, which was quite dirty at the time of purchase. Since the basement was dirty, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with it so I have the run of the place. Now that it's starting to look good, she even want to do some decorating down there and says nothing about the speakers, etc!

Not sure exactly what you are wanting out of a sub, but the Boston Acoustics PV400 is a small sub, very styish and a decent performer for the price. I have one in the living room upstairs that my wife has never noticed (and I've never told her).

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Andy;

Don't you have any say in this decision? I would hope that your wife respects you enough to consider what you want along with what she likes and then come to some conclussion based on that.

Ugh! I'm amused by this thread, and yet I'm somewhat disgusted by it. Count me in as another happy single fella. Let's hope I find the woman who doesn't have any problems with big speakers and upgrades.

 

[Andy Sz]

Jeff,
Of course I have some say. We like to decide on everythign as a partnership. It is our money so we should both be happy with the decision.
She may not understand tweeters, woofers and such (not that I do either ) but she knows what she hears.
Trust me, I didn't start this thread so it could be a wife-bashing event. I was simply looking for some alternatives.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

Andy;

I'm glad to hear that you do have some say in this decision. I don't mean to bad-mouth your wife, but I do get frustrated when I think about not being able to purchase exactly what I want without jumping through hoops to do it. I guess I'm not ready for the married life yet.

My one fear is that you'll get the Bose speakers back to your home and she will like them enough to declare that you should keep them, end of story. I know you can do better than Bose and pray to God that you don't get stuck with them. By the way, doesn't she have any problem with the Bose bass module, which is supposed to be like a subwoofer? (Although no self-resepecting audiophile would call that thing a sub!)

I don't know if anyone else mentioned this in this thread, but I would take a look at some Energy Take 5.2 speakers. They're small, they sound good and you can get a pair of them for about the same price as the Bose AM 6 set. Be forewarned though; They will require a sub of some sort to supply adequate bass!

Good luck on your purchase. I anxiously await the results of this little adventure.

 

[Rory Buszka]

I think you need to at least bump it up to the AM-15 if you can. If you are going to get stuck with 5.25" woofers, at least get the one with three woofers instead of just one.

But when I am old enough to get married I will make sure the woman I marry will respect me and my hobbies (things that I certainly know more about through my experience and research) as much as I will respect her and hers.

I can't help but think there is something more at work here. Perhaps she is angry at you for some secret reason that she doesn't want to tell you but she's mad and wants revenge for it anyway, even though she won't tell you what it is for.

Andy, make sure you show your wife all of the really bad reviews that will be surely coming to AudioReview.com about the Acoustimass system. And then, when you have the speakers at home, switch between the two speaker sets while playing vocal or dialogue material and do like Bose does at their sales kiosks (only talk about the JBL and not the Bose) and talk about the natural vocal reproduction and the smooth, extended, crystal-clear highs that belie the size of the speakers. Extoll the virtues of the larger subwoofer's ability to deliver exciting home theater action by adding the lowest octave of bass. Say that the JBL subwoofer delivers tight, natural bass reproduction that responds instantly. Then hook up the Bose speakers and talk about the midrange that sounds like it is choked and grunting, and play something vocal with cymbals and ask your wife to listen to the cymbals and note the lack of air and high frequency in the reproduction by the Acoustimass cubes. Make sure your couch is in the "far-field". The way Bose sells speakers like that is to get the listener close enough to the speakers that they don't have to crank to the point of distortion to sould good and loud. Make sure your wife knows this. Then make sure your couch is equidistant from all speakers. Also note to her that that the bass from the Acoustimass module is even more boomy than the bass from the JBL's sub, while being a lot quieter. Also, adjust the sub's internal crossover to about 70 Hz, so that the sub does not get localized. Then place the Acoustimass "module" in the corner and ask your wife to walk into the room with the stereo on and locate the subwoofer. Then ask your wife to locate the "module".
If you watch a movie, turn down the bass and turn up the highs. The reason for this is because the frequencies that the Acoustimass cubes exaggerate are the frequencies which cause listener fatigue the most quickly. They quickly sound ugly. (The father of the drummer for my friend's band has an Acoustimass 3 system from some time ago, and I've had a time to play with it and find that this is very true.

And, best of luck to you.

 

[Dan Mastro]

guess i was lucky. waf says she's tired of the speakers on the floor and wires along the walls. i was told we needed a new entertainment system to go with a 32" set on the way. my reply was...do you know what you're saying?? i said i would not have a large wardrobe in the family room, and we both agreed. i started my quest at a local cambridge sound works store. i brought home a small white colored speaker for her to check out. she wanted them white to blend in. stupidly, or was that cunningly, i took a black one too, she liked the black better. i hooked up the speaker, replacing a small ar speaker sitting on the floor. we both agreed it sounded terrible. while testing the speaker, kinda cranked, i blew one side of my 35 year old tuner/receiver. i told her that her phantom of the opera would sound better on a transister radio without towers. finally giving in, she agreed!! i started reading here and else where after returning the csw speakers. seriously was considering the axiom epic 60 system. i called joe and asked him which receiver to purchase that would work nicely with the epic. he suggested two makes and i settled on a yammie rxv1300. proudly brought it home, hastily wired it to the existing speakers, and what a difference. i said to her, wait 'til the system arrives that i just ordered from axiom. displaying a black and white picture off the net did not produce any unwanted results. when the system arrived and was turned on she was not wowed. i did't have the proper cable for the sub. she wanted to know where the bass was...next day, glasses in the cabinets were clinking. my two teenage daughters bolted from their rooms upstairs to see what happened to the stereo. since then, the "night club" has been closed; turned down the woofer. the clincher was the josh groban in concert dvd i bought her for xmas. she was blown away, and i'm hoping soon i will be too.
now about that nagging about too much scotch...
dan

 

[Steve WC]

Andy,
Custom Priced:
http://www.calaudiotech.com/cat1/endtable.htm
http://www.calaudiotech.com/cat1/coffeetable.htm

 

[Rory Buszka]

Here are the reviews off of AudioReview that you should show your wife:
I love sitting back and reading reviews of products and I get the most enjoyment from reading Bose reviews.
Where do I fit in in the grand scheme of things here? No I do not own a Bose AM6 or any Bose AM system for that matter. But I have carefully listened to just about every offering Bose has ever had, from the 'Legendary' (To whom?) 901's to the 501's to the AM15 and the AM6 and the Wave Radio etc al. I have also owned 3 American Sports cars that came with Bose 'Premium' (Laugh) Audio Systems (I had no choice in the matter otherwise they would not be in the cars either)
There has honestly never been a Bose product that has sounded good to me. Sound is subjective and I understand everyone has thier own preferences when it comes to music. I always thought the goal was an accurate reproduction of the sound that was originaly recorded by the artist. And if that is your goal, Flat Frequency Response from 20Hz to 20Khz then I am sorry to inform the Bose-O-Philes here that you are missing out on very critical bands of musical information.
It is a well documented fact that Bose does not believe music is about flat Freq Response, But rather they believe it's about some whimsical feeling you get in your gut when you sit in your chair and look at the system with the tiny cube speakers with the stainless look of some obscure Doctors name on them. And then when you fire up the music and you hear that classic Bose attenuation of the midband frequencies and miss out on most of the low and high frequencies.
I absolutely loved this quote from another review here on this forum. 'The highs are not enhanced by having a metal tweeter,but are natural sounding' I think this sums up the mentality of a Bose Acoustimass Owner. Do you belive that a Metal Tweeter is detrimental to the music? Perhaps the low end audio equipment you are used to hearing does fatigue your ears with the cheap $0.40 cent aluminum tweeters and the even cheaper crossovers. I guess that if you like Rolloff in the 13-18hz range then hearing a true Metal Dome tweeter play information clean up to 20-30Khz would sound 'Different' to you.
I guess Bose does have some redeeming qualities. They are great if your marriage is on the fritz because you wanted to bring home big speakers. Bose most definatly has Spousal Approval Factor if nothing else.
My wife would not make my decision in matters of audio no more than I would decide what Bra's she would wear.
Contrary to what Bose says, Tiny Cubes do not make 'Big, Bold, Sound' if you want sheer dynamics, impact and presence then your only choice is a high quality Bookshelf Speaker integrated with a SubWoofer, Or a set of Full or Near Full Range Towers.
That's it, I have nothing more to add to this review. And just so I don't comprimise the wonferful reputation of your AM6 systems I will give this a middle of the road review as far as points go.
If you have anything to respond to, please do not hesitate to email me so we can have a discussion.
Sincerely
A non Bose-O-Phile
(Here's a likely reply)
Let me put it this way, those who dislike bose do not know what their talking about or in this case hearing. IF you take a crap reciever and hook this system up to it you cant expect the best. For those of you who think bose speakers have cheap drivers its you and me both but when it comes to what you enjoy or what makes your ears happy its no hard decision that bose has hit the top. I have my bose hooked up to a Harman/Kardon AVR 8000 ($2,799.00 yeah baby)which pumps it with a massive amout of clean clear crisp power effortlessly. So once again those of you who hook this system up to cheap old sony's, Panasonic or yamahas then im pretty sure you aint seen the full potential of these speakers by Bose.
(In that situation, a person determines quality based on price. What blasphemy, hooking up such poorly-made speakers to such a nice reciever!)
Horrific speakers. I have two home theater systems, one for casual viewing/listening and one for the serious stuff. I spent five hours trying every conceivable variation of use for these speakers. I gave up, reboxed them and returned them. More than anything, I'm indignant about the fraudulant practices of Bose via their stores. When you listen to the Accoustimass speakers in one of the listening rooms, you're lead to believe that the speakers will sound at least tolerable. Don't believe it. I was astonished at how completely unbalanced the Accoustimass speakers sound. These are the first speakers I've ever listened to where the mid-range sounds boomy!
If you're considering these speakers, or any variation I'll recommend you to http://liquidtheater.com/editorials/56 aka "Why Bose suck"
I have had these speakers for about three years now and I like them less every time I hear them. I have a new Sony Dolby Digital receiver with a whole lot of features, but no matter how many hours I spend tweaking them, these speakers never sound good. I sometimes wonder if maybe the "bass module" stopped working, but no, it just sucks. I have listened to a $300 set of JBL satellite speakers with a powered sub. They still had no mid's but at least the bass was good.
I bought these speakers because it was as easy as going to Best Buy and buying one box. But if I had spent a few hours looking at the alternatives, I would be much happier now. I am currently trying to sell these speakers to buy some nice towers. If you have space for anything larger than these speakers, look for an alternative. If you dont have space for anything larger, continue looking for an alternative.
You get the idea.

 

[Andy Sz]

Thanks for the replies guys. And no, she's not angry with me. In ou marriage, she's the "rational" one and I am the "spendthrift". In this case, she's simply playing her part. As a matter of fact, she's always been awesome to me in regards to hobbies.

Anyway, the problem she had with the JBL scs150 was #1 the size of the sub. She's seen subs that are very skinny (see Sony SA-VE535H) and she doens't understand why the JBL 10" sub is so big. Her #2 problem is that she can't really hear the difference between the JBL's and my old set of Kenwoods on the front and KLH's in the rear with no sub and no center.

I will undoubtedly show her the reviews that Rory supplied. Thanks guys......

 

[Rory Buszka]

I thought this should be contained in a separate post in case you might have thought I was still writing reviews.

Here I have assembled a possible alternative to the Acoustimass system which will sound much, much better. Its satellite speakers are about 8" or 9" high and actually made out of MDF.

Satellites: 5 Home Theater Direct ("HTD" brand) "Middies". the Middy was born out of the quest for the smallest cabinet possible which could, with special drivers, reach the 100 Hz point which is the highest acceptable crossover point for a subwoofer (the Bose cubes cross at 200 Hz). It features dual 2.5" midbasses with real butyl rubber surrounds and "doped" (heavily-coated) paper cones in a bass-reflex enclosure along with a compact 3/4" doped textile-dome tweeter (good for your wife who clearly doesn't like sizzling highs). These are possibly the best small satellites on the market (excepting the Energy Take5.2 which are also awesome if you can find them but they're more expensive).

Subwoofer: 1 Pinnacle SubSonic Platinum. It is only an 8" cube and features a pair of super-long-excursion 6.5" fiber-cone woofers that are driven by a 350-watt amplifier in an acoustic-suspension enclosure. It extends all the way down to 28 HZ. That is extremely remarkable for a subwoofer that size. Its transient response is also very good. It should sound great even with a wife who doesn't like boomy bass. You could even hide the subwoofer beind a potted plant. The only issue is that the subwoofer alone is $700. But you are going to pay a price for that kind of performance out of such a small box. But it IS the world's smallest "real" subwoofer out there.

 

[Kip Lackey]

My wife would not make my decision in matters of audio no more than I would decide what Bra's she would wear.

I do like to have some say in the bra area. I sure don't like granny bra's. Victorias Secret is definitely better.