What does your significant other think about your hobby?

LucaMotz

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So I only recently built a 5.0.4 system and I am completely blown away by what’s possible and how great movies I know can sound and how amazing atmos mixed music is etc., etc.
You could say: I fell in love with this new hobby of mine.

Today I showed that system to my girlfriend (I literally built it in 4 days or so and we only really were at her place not mine) and calling her reaction underwhelming would be an understatement.

The first thing she said when she entered the living room was that the speakers look ugly and she doesn’t understand why one would need an additional speaker next to the sitting area and overhead speakers. The ones in front should by all means be enough.

We then listened to some music and she didn’t think it was special at all and again questioned why anyone would ever need something like this, saying that stuff like that really isn’t so important to her. This confused me since she’s a great musician and so I thought at least the expanded soundstage for music would be something she‘d like. Well, no!

Next up we watched a 5.1 documentary upmixed to atmos for like 10 minutes and I thought it was amazing because you were literally surrounded by the sounds of water sloshing around and whales singing their song. Well, she couldn’t even hear the difference, she said!

So I was wondering: What do your significant others, parents, children, pets?, etc. think about your system?
Do they appreciate it? Do they think it’s a waste of time and money? Can they hear the difference when you make improvements? Do they ask questions and try to understand what it is you are doing?

Looking forward to your stories!
 
Heathen!

Can you PX her?

Lol.

My wife and daughter love our system, as do all thier friends. Get at least one sub added to the system and then she may think differently.
 
Family loves the surround sound, meaty sub and rumblers in the sofa. When it comes to my other hobbies - garden railway, astrophotography and model making, they are not so bothered!
 
If using a TV, I usually turn off the amp right at the end and everyone is shocked how bad TV speakers sound vs a full dedicated surround system.

At the end of the day, you're doing it for yourself so shouldn't matter too much what others think, as usually it can just be a disappointment! I doubt my wife would have ever even got a soundbar and just used TV speakers if I wasn't around :rotfl:
 
Heathen!

Can you PX her?

Lol.

My wife and daughter love our system, as do all thier friends. Get at least one sub added to the system and then she may think differently.
Well I don’t think a sub would do much for her. My towers have a decent bass output, much more then what she‘s used to, and make the floor rumble as well.
Obviously a sub would add to that and I don’t doubt that this would make the system even more impressive, but I‘m still living in an apartment after all :D
The thing is, I went from a decent stereo system to a surround system. So it’s not like it was complete trash before. Maybe that’s the reason.

Family loves the surround sound, meaty sub and rumblers in the sofa. When it comes to my other hobbies - garden railway, astrophotography and model making, they are not so bothered!
Well for me it’s the other way round haha :D My photo gear is much appreciated. My AV system apparently not so much.
If using a TV, I usually turn off the amp right at the end and everyone is shocked how bad TV speakers sound vs a full dedicated surround system.

At the end of the day, you're doing it for yourself so shouldn't matter too much what others think, as usually it can just be a disappointment! I doubt my wife would have ever even got a soundbar and just used TV speakers if I wasn't around :rotfl:
Maybe I‘ll try that next time. Make her watch the same thing on a laptop and see if she still enjoys it just as much. Honestly I wouldn’t be too shocked if she did :D
I am quite happy doing it for myself it would just be nice to be able to enjoy it together.
For me, just sitting down and listening to music, or watching a film now is something special. I can hear the sound coming from every angle and I‘m just wowed by it. For her it’s just down time and not something she’s “actively” doing. I don’t know if I‘m making sense to you here :p
I was just wondering if this was normal or if she was especially ignorant to good sound haha :D
 
From a teenager I've always has some form of hi-fi or cinema system, so, any women I've had the pleasure of being with has always known me with these toys. I had my first cinema system around the same time as my first long time partner and I've never been without one even though I've had a few changes to both my system and ladies along the way :rolleyes:
 
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I have a dedicated room in a detached double garage, so my setup doesn't infringe on the house and thus the decor related concerns that would come with it, but while my wife tolerates the hobby/room (mainly as she can't see it), she only wants to watch a movie in it 'if it isn't too loud' and I leave the lights partially on, so its a rare occurrence o_O. She much prefers the TV and sofa.

Surprisingly (to me at least) are my kids (both 10 and under) whose usual reaction to 'lets watch a movie in the garage' is 'erghhhh, do we have to? Can we not just watch it on the TV....'

I have dreamed of having a dedicated room since I was a teenager, so my kids' complete disinterest baffles me sometimes

On the upside, as my wife never uses it, she doesn't notice any 'upgrades' that sneak in from time to time ;)
 
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I have a dedicated room in a detached double garage, so my setup doesn't infringe on the house and thus the decor related concerns that would come with it, but while my wife tolerates the hobby/room (mainly as she can't see it), she only wants to watch a movie in it 'if it isn't too loud' and I leave the lights partially on, so its a rare occurrence o_O. She much prefers the TV and sofa.

Surprisingly (to me at least) are my kids (both 10 and under) whose usual reaction to 'lets watch a movie in the garage' is 'erghhhh, do we have to? Can we not just watch it on the TV....'

I have dreamed of having a dedicated room since I was a teenager, so my kids' complete disinterest baffles me sometimes

On the upside, as my wife never uses it, she doesn't notice any 'upgrades' that sneak in from time to time ;)
Well I could see their point if it was a hassle to get into the garage so it wasn’t just a “oh hey, let’s watch a movie“ but it doesn’t really sound like it is..
But at least you have your own room where you can do whatever you want!
 
My wife isn't bothered with my AV either. She appreciates the experience on the rare occasions that we watch a movie together but in general she is happier sitting in the lounge watching TV. The good thing is she doesn't mind how much I spend on upgrades. :)
 
My wife isn't bothered with my AV either. She appreciates the experience on the rare occasions that we watch a movie together but in general she is happier sitting in the lounge watching TV. The good thing is she doesn't mind how much I spend on upgrades. :)
Well I guess you do have the luxury of having a lounge with a “normal” TV and then some kind of separate room where your stuff is. I live in a 70 m^2 apartment which only has the one living room, so anything I do with the system will be quite obvious.
 
My Mrs and kids are not that bothered about my AV system so it’s not unusual.

Even though I have the garage converted it’s decorated like the rest of the house, if that means I get to put in what kit I want then it’s a small price to pay. It keeps the Mrs happy.

Even though she pays no interest she has come with me to demo all the recent changes, speakers turntable etc, she shocked me by commenting on the difference between different speakers

Don‘t forget the old saying happy wife happy life.

All my family will just watch Netflix, Disney plus etc, not a chance of putting in a disc, although at the present moment my youngest is watching Robbie Williams at Knebworth on DVD 🤨

So that leaves the Dog….. My Golden Retriever Luna really does not like the Sub.
Watched A Quiet Place 2 the other week really loud and when the Alien Creature “screamed“ she shot out of the room with her tail between her legs.

I guess the other way around i pay as much attention to the “dross” that my family watches and think fair enough each to their own
 
My Mrs and kids are not that bothered about my AV system so it’s not unusual.

Even though I have the garage converted it’s decorated like the rest of the house, if that means I get to put in what kit I want then it’s a small price to pay. It keeps the Mrs happy.

Even though she pays no interest she has come with me to demo all the recent changes, speakers turntable etc, she shocked me by commenting on the difference between different speakers

Don‘t forget the old saying happy wife happy life.

All my family will just watch Netflix, Disney plus etc, not a chance of putting in a disc, although at the present moment my youngest is watching Robbie Williams at Knebworth on DVD 🤨

So that leaves the Dog….. My Golden Retriever Luna really does not like the Sub.
Watched A Quiet Place 2 the other week really loud and when the Alien Creature “screamed“ she shot out of the room with her tail between her legs.

I guess the other way around i pay as much attention to the “dross” that my family watches and think fair enough each to their own
I love those kinda slice of life stories :D
It’s so interesting how different families and couples handle our specific hobby differently.
I love how I can take stuff away from that as well. I‘ll try to make the speakers look a bit nicer (although I don’t quite know how..) and maybe add some vintage hipster stuff (my girlfriend is a bit of a hipster girl :p) to make stuff more appealing haha
Thanks for the entertaining story!
 
The ex wife liked that she always had something to watch, since we couldn’t afford pay tv and didn’t have available high speed internet.

My previous gf/housemate couldn’t stand it. But really didn’t care to understand anything that I did either. Just wanted internet and a good phone signal which still weren’t available here.

My most recent gf likes the game on the bigger screen, the bigger sound, and likes how I can watch and control the sources from the bedroom. And being able to watch all kinds of oddball stuff on FTA, Roku, whatever. When I walked her through the steps to change satellites and channels, she seemed intrigued in a good way.
 
My GF has very little interest in it at all. She did enjoy a couple of GoT episodes on the 100 inch screen but, at her house she has a 43" TV and says she can't tell the difference between SD and HD broadcasts on Sky. As for the surround sound, she's not interested at all...
 
My missus thinks my sound bar is too loud! And she says you can’t tell the difference between SD and HD although the other day she did say the HLG broadcast of the Mating Game looked very good. When my man cave is done she probably will never come in 😃
 
My good Lady is very tolerant, she really likes the cinema room and understands my passion for it as well as HiFi n cars etc. We both love films and when we recently watched a film on a TV she was shocked, constantly saying this cant be a film its a made for TV cheap production isn't it ? Nothing looks right or sounds right. She's actually very good at spotting and appreciating upgrades !

Olive watches films with us too, but her hearing and eye sight isn't what it used to be and at 12 1/2 she usually falls asleep during the film :)

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What an interesting post! Over the many years I’ve had both numerous cinema systems and for that matter girlfriends and wives. Universally in my experience women don’t get HiFi or home cinema….my current wife just says it’s too loud (heard that a thousand times before) and can’t spot differences (actually can but just doesn’t care). Recently she asked for a TV in her snug, so I kindly researched and bought a Panasonic OLED. Much to my dismay she now watches nothing but SD reality tv on it. She hasn’t actually been in the cinema room since she got the TV and says she prefers reality TV. Can’t remember the last evening we spent together watching something.
In her defence I’m sure I show no interest in her enormous collection of shoes and constant deliveries of beauty products.
Men are from Mars and Wonen are from Venus!
🤷🏻‍♂️
 
I have a dedicated room in a detached double garage, so my setup doesn't infringe on the house and thus the decor related concerns that would come with it, but while my wife tolerates the hobby/room (mainly as she can't see it), she only wants to watch a movie in it 'if it isn't too loud' and I leave the lights partially on, so its a rare occurrence o_O. She much prefers the TV and sofa.

Surprisingly (to me at least) are my kids (both 10 and under) whose usual reaction to 'lets watch a movie in the garage' is 'erghhhh, do we have to? Can we not just watch it on the TV....'

I have dreamed of having a dedicated room since I was a teenager, so my kids' complete disinterest baffles me sometimes

On the upside, as my wife never uses it, she doesn't notice any 'upgrades' that sneak in from time to time ;)
Sounds like our families would get on perfectly mate, my experience is identical to yours 😂
 
Sounds like our families would get on perfectly mate, my experience is identical to yours 😂
Haha - no doubt they would just sit around complaining about us...! Just as long as they never find out how much we spend o_O :D
 
My better half didn’t like sitting in our bat cave because she couldn’t use her iPad….

So we have compromised in our new home on an 83inch oled rather than a Projector.

When we were dating I bought her for fun a Blu ray player to upgrade her crap DVD player and bought her a few blus like “Eat Pray Love”.

When we were watching it I said “look how detailed it is over Dvd” to which she replied “is it? I can’t tell I haven’t got my glasses on”! True story.

Now she just accepts my hobby and I don’t ask if it looks good :rotfl:
 
I have been in to this sort of thing for as long as i can remember. Not one person in my house cares less. They wont even watch bbc in hd. As for putting a film on its to loud and if they watch something they wont even put the amp on. Ive just booked a calibration buy all accounts im paying for some bloke to say yes the tv has a picture. I give up
 
I guess I'm one of the lucky ones, my wife loves being in the HT with me watching movies and TV series. She is also appreciating the improvements added over time.

I have not had anyone visit that didn't enjoy the full 9.1.6 experience.
 
My wife and kids are pretty meh to all things AV. That is until something stops working. Then it's a full on meltdown with kids screaming 'Where's DAD!!!'
 
"Why do we need more speakers in the house?"
"Too many cables"
"I can't tell the difference"
"Why do you keep tinkering with it, it sounds fine"
"Oh the amplifier was off, I didn't notice" after coming home to find her watching TV over TV speakers.

You are not alone...
 
"Oh the amplifier was off, I didn't notice" after coming home to find her watching TV over TV speakers.

So true. I switch it on every morning and off last thing at night. Seems fair, on the basis that I've set it up so that you can't have TV sound :)

And it's a Denon, so being on all day helps us save on the heating.
 

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