The wife said Yes ... (longish) (1 Viewer)

[John Spicer]

Ok, Ever notice how when men get together and talk about their wives collectively with respect to toys or electronics it typically goes down hill pretty fast ? The other thread regarding a gentleman and his wife shows proof. He asked for help looking for a system his wife can live with and we all went and told him to get divorced *snicker.* Lynch me for this if you want, but Im gonna make a stand here and say that for once I want to hear the good about our wives and our toys. I know there have to be plenty out there. Nough of this negative stuff lets here some of the positive out there !!
Patti and I just moved into our new and first home a tad over two months ago. For the first time in my life Ive had the location to put together a real HT system. No, we dont have permament blinds yet, yes were still paying off our wedding, yes we have many other priorities, but when I started to get excited about putting together a HT system, Patti never said no. Yeah she voiced some concerns (rightfully so I might add) but she was always supportive of me. I should say that she really isnt into the HT thing and she admits she doesnt hear any noticable difference between speaker brands, sound location, etc. We heard the BOSE demo at the store when I first started looking around and she loved it. Small, sounded good to her, not so pricey, etc. You should have seen her eyes when I started to uncrate the B&W 600 series system that I got instead of the BOSE that she liked so much. Then, just when she thought it was over, the SVS was delivered. I put it in the corner, of the living room, where everyone can see it and where we had previously had a floor lamp. Know what she did ? She helped me figure out a way to arrange the furniture around the HT system to make the room work for her. What a babe. We watched LOTR the other night and almost broke the windows in the house Ok, it was a bit much for me too (love those SVS') but all she did was ask me to trim it down some, not turn it off, not take it back. She was literally asking for a little less low end to better balance it to here tastes. I love her to death.
What about you ? I know there are others on this board with the same kind of stories and I want to hear em.
-- John

 

[BradJudy]

Yep, I'm pretty lucky too. While not yet married, my girlfriend and I do own a house together. As I shopped for a new HT system I showed her pictures of the various speakers, asking her what she thought. I think she was happy that I was enjoying myself and that I found a setup I liked. She seems to like it as well and even had me show to off to a couple of her friends.
I think getting input during the process is important. I'm building a stereo rack at the moment and got her input on the wood finish as well. Of course it may help that I do most of the cooking.

 

[Jeff Kohn]

My wife's pretty understanding. She's not crazy about the esthetics of having all that stuff in the living room, but it's not so bad that she can't live with it. It helps that she actually enjoys watching TV and movies with the home theater almost as much as I do. She's told me that in the future if/when we move into a new house it will need to have a room that can be turned into a dedicated theater, though. I don't disagree.

 

[Martin Rendall]

My wife tolerates more than even I think is reasonable. 'Nuff said.

Martin.

 

[Luke_R]

My girlfriend is pretty understanding, she wasn't so big on the svs sub, which I can understand, when I saw pics of it next to someone even I admitted it was overwhelming, but she is fine with me getting a setup of towers or bookshelves and with a sub like the vtf-2, which is my number one choice right now. She even says when I sell my acura, which has bose, bleh, she wants me to get a setup like I used to have with my boston pro 12" sub so bass is definetly not a problem with her.

 

[Douglas H.]

My wife was great with recent purchases. I'd been pushing the top end of our budget with basic Axiom system (M22ti's, VP150, and QS4) and was trying to save a $ or two by thinking about the Sony WM-40 sub. I brought up the idea of going for the Hsu VTF-2 and she said "you know, if you're going to spend the money, you might as well get the system you'll be happy with!" Needless to say, a few days later Dr. Hsu's creation was blasting away with the Fellowship of the Ring DVD and we were both enjoying it a great deal. She's been wonderful.

 

[Jesse Blacklow]

This is on behalf of my dad. In my parent's house, my mom is the one who's pushing for HDTV, DirecTiVo, etc, so the situation is kind of reversed. My dad keeps on complaining about cost and obsolesence, but my mom is the one with the eye on finances. If it wasn't for my dad, I would have convinced her to go with a projector and HD, with a DirecTiVo on the second TV. Alas, it's little steps for now, starting with the satellite. Now all I have to do is teach them about audio...

 

[John Doran]

my wife surprised me with our first HT gear a couple of years ago - i came home one day to find mains (def tech bp2000's), receiver (denon avr-5800), and dvd player (denon dvm-3700) all set up and ready to go in the living room. i almost crapped my pants.
since then, she has endured my extravagant plans for upgrade and completing the whole thing ("i'm telling you, i need to have $40,000 worth of new stereo equipment..."), and has taken the first step in stride - i just ordered the B4 Plus from SVS...
coolest chick i've ever known.
- jd

 

[Jim Williams]

When it comes to my wife, well, she doesn't even understand the concept of stereo. She can't comprehend why there would be different info going to the left and the right channels. As far as she is concerned the same data should be going to both channels.

With that said you know that 5.1 or 6.1 theater surround is completely incomprehensible. She does tolerate my passion for home theater though. Our only real point of debate is why does it have to be so loud!

When I bought her the DVD of "Dirty Dancing" with Patrick Swayze she admitted that our home theater system was actually a good investment ... lol!

 

[Thang_N.]

Jim,
My wife loves "Dirty Dancing" too. She could watch that and "Pretty Woman" over and over... Blahh..
I guess its the same with me and Gladiator, LOTR, etc.
My wife is incredible, she knows I love electronics and such and has allowed me to get everything I want. Some as a surprise even after she told me no..

But I don't think she has had the time to watch "Dirty Dancing" on our new Home Theater setup....Not much right now but I just started..
Love my toys, but love my daughter and wife more..

 

[Joe Wong]

My wife gave me carte blanche when we moved into a house in NJ. How's that?
Joe

 

[Andrew Walbert]

My girlfriend said that I can have free reign of the HT room if she gets to decorate the master bedroom and adjoining bath when we build. Fine by me! But when I dragged her along while looking at speakers and projectors, she came out of there saying, "Uhm, Andy, you're going to keep this under $50,000 right?" Now, I hadn't planned on spending quite that much even if I got lucky. I was thinking $15-20k tops for the HT setup I want. Maybe $25k if I really went overboard. So naturally my response was, "Well, I don't know. That might be kinda hard."

 

[Nick P]

my wife surprised me with our first HT gear a couple of years ago - i came home one day to find mains (def tech bp2000's), receiver (denon avr-5800), and dvd player (denon dvm-3700) all set up and ready to go in the living room. i almost crapped my pants.

Contest is over, John wins!

 

[DaveZeisler]

I was happy to see this thread come up after the "My Wife Has Spoken" bitch session thread. To those guys I say, grow up and remember why you married your wife. I'm glad there are other fellows here who love their wives, too.
My wife's pretty much wonderful all the time. I'm reminded of it when she supports my hobbies (running marathons in addition to HT). After auditioning B&W speakers with a friend and realizing how antiquated my speakers are, she was all for me starting the search for new speakers. Hell, she even said we need to get a plasma TV, too! It helps that she's as much a movie fan as I am. She even got me the Philips Pronto for Xmas and I hadn't even asked for it.
I think she sees how excited I get about home theater gadgets and she's happy for me. And when it all boils down, being happy with the one you love is what its all about, right?

 

[Michael_Hml]

I have to also chime in here and say that my wife has been incredibly understanding about my HT addiction. She was a bit skeptical at first, but now that she's used to the system, she loves it. She's ben super-tolerant about my upgrading and tweaking and is really excited to plan a dedicated theater room when we purchase our next house.

One thing that helps, I think, is that we're lucky enough to have a formal living room on the 1st floor and a den on the 2nd floor. This way she gets to keep the black boxes and blinking lights out of the living room and while it's not a closed-off dedicated HT room, I get to take over the den where we spend most of our "hanging around" time when we're home.

On the rare occasion that she's asked for something (like no speaker spikes), she usually gets her way without complaint... it's the least I can do.

-Mike

 

[Dan Workman]

Gift certificates for Christmas from the local independently-owned HT store...how's that for understanding?? Now, I just have to decide what to spend it on.....decisions, decisions!!

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

I think the following are necessary to maintain SAF:

If you're considering a purchase in the next few weeks/months go ahead and tell her. She'll either appreciate that you're giving her a heads up or she'll slowly accept the inevitable.

Encourage her input. Show her the products you're considering and explain why they meet your needs. Allow her to help make the final decision or at least the finish/color decision for speakers.

Always tell her before you buy. Even with those spur-of-the-moment, deal-of-the-day specials ... if its $100 or more, call her before you hit the button. If she finds out after the fact then she may grow a reasonable grudge against the your HT "addiction".

Once you've got it in the house explain and show her how it is superior to what you had before. She can't appreciate the difference if she doesn't know what the difference is.

My wife initially didn't see the need to upgrade my 12 year old pioneer stereo. But now she wouldn't let me go back. She's very understanding about projects in progress. Our HT is in the main living room and at one point I had an SVS, a DIY sonosub and a DIY sealed box sub all at once. The sealed box sub is gone but the other two are there to stay, with her understanding if not her blessing. And SHE was the one encouraging ME to get the rear-projection widescreen.

In the similar fashion, she's been talking for a while about buying a $500 software package - Adobe Photoshop, Pagemaker, a couple others. If not for her interest I could care less about this stuff. But after discussing other options (Photoshop Essentials, etc.) and considering for weeks, I decided she deserves what she really wants ... after all, she did the same for me.

 

[MattMB]

I've not had trouble at all with my wife with anything in the setup. The only thing she balked at was mounting the surrounds on the wall in the living room. She said I had to have them on speakers stands instead.

Latest step was approving the purchase of an Infocus X1 DLP projector. She's excited about decorating the basement theater. Of course, she is also ok with that being the draft bar too, as I'm a homebrewer.

Matt

 

[Scott_Jua]

My wife blows me away every single day. She can't be beat in my eyes. When the SVS showed up yesterday I was relieved that it was about as big as I thoguht it would be but was wondering about her reaction when she opened the door and saw what may as well had been a new family member, it was so big. To my surpise she smiled and said I hope it makes you happy. She was patient and endured the many waves of bass as I tweaked and tested for my first eveing with the huge sub. I had to move the TV stand out of it's place some, but all she did was offer suggestions and help on how to best suit the placement of the new sub.
Now she gets to hear me piss and moan about needing a new receiver to handle the sub, not clip our rears into oblivion, and fill the midrange gap in the frequency range, while planning for the next ten years of HT inour home. All the while guiding me with slight concern abotu spending, but never discouraging my stupid endeavors for a happy home theater experience. I have been reading cars, electronics, and home theater stuff many moons before meeting her, but she doesn't squash the kid who won't grow up in me. She sacrifices alot more than I may realize to make me happy in the admittedly childish quest for rumbling bass, and sonic quality. Let's not get into her tolerance for my car stuff! (She even almost bought me the S2000)... what a special person...but not because of that...it's simply just because her heart and kind demeanor make her uniquely...well, her.
Simply put...she's the best!!!

 

[Paul_Fisher]

my wife surprised me with our first HT gear a couple of years ago - i came home one day to find mains (def tech bp2000's), receiver (denon avr-5800), and dvd player (denon dvm-3700) all set up and ready to go in the living room. i almost crapped my pants.

I seriously would have crapped my pants.