A stereo in the living room..not if my wifetime

Man, these threads always remind me that I married the right woman:

"You were thinking about getting the bigger TV, right?"

"You should buy that better mastering you've been hemming and hawing about."

"I hope that Netflix has that movie on Blu-ray!"

"If that phono cartridge will sound better, you should get it."

"Turn it up!"

 

See, you have hit on the big secret!
The rest of us just need to move our spouses out to a back apartment or something, then I could fill my living room with Voice Of The Theatre

 

SWEET.

 

Well...I married the right woman as well, but our tastes in music, movies and hardware are certainly very different. However, she gives me some leeway with the things I love and then I try to do the same for her.

We're together, but we are also individuals. As for the living room, I have a modest system in there but we both use it - myself for music in general and she does when reading or cleaning the house.

 

I've had a dedicated listening room for most of our 42 years together, it's really the best for us. As comedian Adam Carolla says: The key to a successful marriage is a good tv, a good bed, and lots of square footage.

 

Same here. I could care less what she does with the remaining rooms in the house. Zero input and zero care.

 

My GF has been staying with me for a couple years now. My living room is set-up with a 50" LED TV and surround system. When she fires up the system, she's learned to use three remotes: one to turn on the Jolida tube amp, another for the Outlaw processor and another to turn on the TV. Shutting things down takes one less remote though.

The audio system is always on when the TV is playing. That Jolida amp sees a lot of hours use.

 

Logitech Harmony. Google that.

 

Just like a dog, a boat, or a vintage sports car - always have your stereo rig in place before the woman comes into the picture. "Sorry, hon, the Vandersteens are older than you!"

 

My wife drinks bourbon, loves football, and digs the Pendragons in the living room, especially when playing old Stones, loud. I am the luckiest dude on the planet!!!

 

HA! now that's funny!

 

Maybe if we began making aftermarket speaker grills with more decor-friendly patterns. For instance, a friend's wife thought his guitar amps looked ratty and did not want them where they would be seen by guests. But when he brought home a Vox she decided it looked quite nice and would like it in the living room. So maybe we just need a diamond-pattern loudspeaker grill company.

If you need a visual for a Vox amp, here's an AC30 (photo from Vintage Guitar).

 

I have K horns in the living room and a pair of custom built Altecs bigger than the Khorns, I am single though.

 

Do they scare women away ?

 

I think they:

1) tell a woman what's more important in life, especially if there are children.

2) in the case i'm talking about, the family didn't have a lot of money.

3) the Klipschorns the guy had were ugly in a family room, and were huge, like concert hall huge

 

I see nothing wrong with that . . . if she's very wealthy and he's her lap dog.

 

I had something like that several years ago. I've thought about getting one again so thanks for bringing it to my attention.

 

This is a great thread, as I can totally relate.

When I got married, my new bride moved into my house. At that point I had my very large Altec Flamenco's in the living room. The system itself, McIntosh separates with a lot of records, was set up in a different room. When we moved into our next home, she would have no part of those Altecs in the living room. Fair enough, they were set up in a den where the main system was set up. I replaced them with a pair of JBL 4311's.

Jump ahead 30 years, in our formal living room I have a Mac 1700 receiver that handles iPod, Spotify or CD's, into a pair of JBL L166's. The big system
resides in a media room where all our TV viewing takes place. Now make no mistake, those JBL's would be gone in a heartbeat given the opportunity
(these things are too big and conflict with my decorating). Needless to say, music and a good sounding hi fi are still a priority. Fortunately I have not been overruled (yet).

 

Sometimes, you just have to make that tough call. You know what I'm sayin.

 

In the living room we have in-wall speakers which were already built into the wall when we moved into the house. My wife has asked me a few times if I wanted to get floorstanding speakers for the room, her treat. I have always said no since the in-walls sound great to me and don't take up any floor space keeping the room rather nice and tidy.

 

Maybe, but I already found a girl that loves them as much as I do.
She can hang around for a while

 

It would appear you have already. My wife likes my towers because they are stealth black and blend with the decor, but if she didn't.......

 

They take about 10 min of configuring. In my case, it's teaching the wife how to use it which has been problematic.

The great thing about these is the fact you can create scripts which state button 3 from remote X is first pressed, then button 12 from remote Y, etc. Even with that, my wife has struggled somewhat so I'll wish you luck on that front.

 

My system doesn't require a systematic power-up approach but it does require three remotes. Any one of the three devices can be powered up in a different sequence but they do all have to be turned on. It can be confusing too due that the cable remote will power off the Outlaw processor but it won't turn it on.

I even struggle sometimes. And, as far as the universal remote you're speaking of, I guess I hesitate just for the fact I feel too lazy having to figure out how to program one. It's another set of buttons we'll need to get acquainted with, and quite honestly, I don't feel like I can handle learning anymore new technology.

Funny, we listen to a simple medium but we have so many things operating to do it sometimes.

 

Again, it'd be best to have a sequence especially in light of what you divulged. One power would turn everything on and another would turn everything off. You decide which sequence will occur. You can also manually switch between devices but that seems to confuse my wife and MIL so I urge you to use a single-button approach. A word to the wise ; once the button activating a sequence has been pressed, the remote has to still be pointed directly at the devices until the last one is powered on/off. Otherwise, you might have a puzzled wife wondering why only some devices powered off/on while others didn't.

You'd be surprised how easy it is.

You plug the remote with a USB cable onto your PC. You install the program which comes on CD and launch it. It'll recognize the remote and ask you to pick which devices you have (manufacurer and model). Tada! It's done. You then have the option of picking sequence buttons. Honestly, the whole thing took me 10 min. Ridiculously easy. The Harmony 650 (what I use) can be found for $50 on eBay.

The remote control cha-cha is over for me. I don't have to keep track of as many remotes, change their batteries, etc. Just one remote. It's your choice, but considering how cheap and easy it was, I know I'll never go back.