Pleasing the wife

[Anonymous]

Hey Daniel,

I had an extension built, finished in May. It is 30m2. My wife had a major input into the selection of the speakers and I purchased the Kef 2005.3. She loved the egg shape and gloss finish and they look great and sound amazing in the room along with the sub. I got the Yamaha 863 and we love the room and system combination.

I have all the cables run in the walls and despite her initial reservations about the set up she loves the room. She too isn't very tech minded but can manage the system with ease. The best part of it was that we have a Samsung 40" on the wall and a few weeks ago she decided whilst watching Cloverfield that we need a bigger screen!!! I thought she was joking as I had great difficulty getting her to agree to the 40" when we got it as she thought it was too big. So I'm now saving for a 50"+ replacement.

Make sure you put in plenty of sockets although I have both the Tacima block and the copper line alpha on most of my equipment. Get the electrician to run a socket on the wall behind the tv. Also the best advise I got here was don't put the tv too high on the wall!!

Good luck with the room

 

[Cofnchtr]

Hi,

For a purpose built room that already has the cables chased into the wall, I'd be very tempted to go for a projector screen and leave the TV where it is for 'ordinary' viewing. You can then have a screen come down in front of the TV with a picture as big as you want it for films etc.

I'm sure some of the dealers or people who already have projectors who use these forums could advise you better as to which flavour of projector would suit your budget etc.

Obviously the only major work you would need done is the cables to the projector and the installation of the projector but I don't think this would be too hard to organise/DIY.

Cheers,

Cofnchtr.

 

[Anonymous]

Good letter, good thread title, and as far as my experience goes, you get away with blue murder as long as your system is easy to operate (ie 1 remote) and the wires are hidden and tidy. I have some fairly big old speaker boxes (AR17) in real wood veneer that are part of the furniture of our home and all my cables go into the partition wall and through dedicated wall plates for connection to amp etc. TV is wall mounted with all cables hidden within wall also. As long as it looks tidy and neat the actual size of the system components and speakers is not so much of an issue and we can enjoy the sound quality !! Wall mounting brackets and dedicated stands also make the whole thing look properly finished off and not a work in progress !! Good luck Dan

 

[Anonymous]

I once had a colleague who's wife asked him if they should not

get HD!

I told him he was probably the only guy on the planet with such a wife

 

[Anonymous]

Dear all, thanks for your input - it's been fun to read and is greatly appreciated.

I will definitely try and trial the QAV system, as it really seems to fit the bill in terms of layout. We're going to have a TV wall built at the end of our kitchen island. It will be great as it will act as a divide in our otherwise open plan living area. And I can hideaway all my kit in a ventilated storage area in the Kitchen island. However, the TV wall is only wide enough for the TV, and there isn't space to build-in or mount front speakers on either side. With the QAV the LCR speakers all go together under the TV, which would be great...if they sound ok.

I have looked into in-ceiling options and this is my plan B. I would probably go for speakers with directional tweeters so I can tune the sound field, and will probably need to spend around £1000. I need to check the what gap in the new ceiling will be - if there is room, it may be best to get speakers with built in back-cabinets, as I'm told they are much better. If anyone has any experience in this area and can recommend a particular range of in-ceiling speakers, that would be a great.

I next need to find a store in London that can give me a demo of the QAV. I popped into the Holborn branch of Sevenoaks Sound & Vision when I was at home recently, to see what they had and what they had to say, but I was most disappointed by (a) their lack of products, (b) their quality of advice and (c) their seeming total lack of interest in my situation. Can anyone recommend a good hifi / home cinema store?

Cheers!

 

[idc]

Rynehart:

......... Frankly the missus doesn't care so much about sound quality - its all about minimising the aesthetic impact. So I'd prefer as discrete a system as possible.

Counter that with the suggestion that you dont care about how she looks and how she needs to minimise aesthetic impact by ditching all of her make up and make herself as discrete as possible by dressing down in really cheap clothes......

 

[Anonymous]

in my house, wife has the final say about what curtains, washing machine or colour of carpets etc.... I dont even get involved, and just pay

however, when it comes to important things like hi-fi or (my) car selection she has no say at all .... and what I say goes .... it's a man's thing

 

[idc]

Quite right to dim_span. Though I do wonder if many a man comes onto the forum and blames the wife, where-as he is actually the one who does not want loads of wires and big speakers around the living room.

I dont fancy lots of wires and speakers, so I am going to get a soundbar thingy, eventually, when she lets me........

 

[JoelSim]

Just buy what you want. The pain will have died down after a couple of days. It's worth it.

 

[Sonic Dreamer]

This has to be one of the most deliciously entertaining threads on the Forum, by dint of sheer weight of classic material.
You could post this thread en masse on a website called, "Reasons Not To Get Married and Reasons To Get Divorced."
I'm not married, but what further reasons one could think of to erradicate this concept from one's consciousness are arguably of little consequence!! LOL

I can't resist sharing a quote from the redoubtable rock entertainer and raconteur, DAVID LEE ROTH. He was being interviewed by James Halbert from Classic Rock Magazine a few years back, the article was entitled, "The Gripes of Roth."

"CR: Why have you never married?
DLR: Who would you rather be, James: Bill Gates or Hugh Hefner?"

BOOM BOOM

Cheers,
SonicD

 

[staggerlee]

you can never please the wife......................its a lose / lose situation