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If audio is your hobby and you are married, it is important

Posted by Bruce Kendall (D) on April 3, 2007 at 11:32:02

to be sensitive to your spouse's concerns and hot buttons. Take my wife for example. Everything has a place, and everything belongs in its place. That's pretty simple, right? And I respect her feelings in that regard. She runs a tight ship, and after all there isn't much room for clutter around our house. Just a little clutter becomes extremely obvious.

So the other day Fritz was coming over to play with some audio toys. Out of respect, I consulted with Mrs. bwk and she said "That would be fun, as long as you guys don't go off into another frenzy like you usually do". No problem, honey. Fritz shows up and brings in a pair of floor-standing speakers to sit next to my floor-standing speakers so we can look at them. Then we bring in a couple of innocent looking boxes. "I want to finish this movie" Mrs. bwk said. No problem. Fritz also brought some good pizza and some soft drinks, which are always nice offerings.

Fritz opened up a box containing a T-amp, and I felt a little bit of Tool Time kicking in. Oooooh. Ahh, ahh. We finished the movie and ate pizza. See honey? No problem. Once the movie was done it was time for music, with the TV still playing so Mrs. bwk would have something to keep her eyes busy. Hey, look, Fritz brought over this cool little hybrid amp with a tube front end and MOSFET outputs! Ooooh! Ah, ah, ahhhhhhhhhh! Instantly appearing out of (seemingly) thin air were garden-hose wires all over the floor, speaker selector boxes, another amp, hey-look-at-this-new preamp and then speakers were stacked on top of speakers. Sudddenly, there are speaker comparisons happening at lightening speed, Keb Mo wailing away and oh no(!) there is another CD player out. Oops, another CD player is out now! The next thing you know, Fritz and I are doing traditional aborigine victory dances holding amps above our heads. OOOHHHH! AHHHHHH! AHHHHH, AHHHH! We had conquered the living room!

Now lest you think I was in such a frenzy I had completely forgotten my wife, I did notice when she stormed outside and in a fit of misdirected anger unleashed a 15-minute verbal assault on Auggie the chihuahua for chewing pieces of exotic grass. And I did try to get her to play the "which speakers do you like" game, and even ignored her completely out-of-bounds, heathen-like response of "Which ones are playing?".

Oh, but look at the time. It's night already. In a little more than no time at all, all was back in its rightful place. All was serene again.

So after my breakfast adventure this morning, I found myself with a little bit of extra time on my hands. I decided to play the change-everything-in-my-rack game. Pull out the Starship Enterprise amp, and stick the box over here. Take out the Midi-Wampus 1000 integrated. I'll stick its box over here so I can put it away in a minute. Hey, as long as I'm doing this I may as well pull out my Seaview Flying Sub preamp, too! I'll just stick that box over here. "Keep your eye on the clock, Bruce, you gotta wrap this stuff up and be out of here before too long." Oh, look at the dust! I'd better pull out my audio kit and clean that up. But wait, the Seaview Flying Sub preamp doesn't like silver interconnects! I'd better change them out. I'll just leave them here, and I'll set the bag that held their replacements over by these boxes. "Keep your eye on the clock, Bruce." You know what? My Fireball XL5 universal player hasn't had a workout for awhile, I'll just stick its box right here, and put the usual universal player on top so I can quickly put it away in a minute.

Okay, let's connect all this up now. We gotta keep the power cables away from the speaker cables and interconnects. Damn, I'd better elevate those speaker cables again, too! You never know when some audiophile might drop by with a flashlight and look behind my rack. Shit!!!! Look at the damned time! I have to get my ass in gear and get the hell out of here!

WHOOSH! I was out of there, leaving the living room looking like a looted Good Guys outlet. Of course I called my wife when I arrived at the office to let her know I arrived, but "unfortunately" there was someone in my office so I had no time to talk (wink, wink). I have to keep my eye on the clock so I can get back home and clean all that up.

Anyway.......what's that? A call on line 1? For me?

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