How Much Did You Spend on Your 5.1 Speaker System?

[Davemcc]

Yikes. My wife is a payroll administrator with diplomas in accounting, currently finishing her B.Comm. She also does my taxes every year and all of our monthly expenses. I could never get away with a secret account.

I find it's best just to be upfront with things like this. Let her know it's important to you even if she doesn't understand why. She doesn't need to understand why it makes you happy, just that it does. Nor does she need to share an interest in your hobbies for you to pursue them. Besides, the high cost of good equipment is, by and large, a one shot deal if you purchase wisely, barring any upgrades you want to make. The rest is pure enjoyment, available 24/7/365, shared with friends and family or alone.

 

[Exit]

Addressing your present situation

Highwayman

I think what I suggested about a secret account and skimming off annual raises as well as saying you would pay a lower price than actual is pretty reasonable compared to splitting up with your wife over audio equipment. Splitting up could leave you less able to afford audio equipment.

As I understand it you wanted to use your income tax return money to pay for the speakers. She has to sign off on the tax refund check(s) so she knows about the money and may have plans for spending it herself. So you may not be able to hide the true cost of the SVS 5.1 system right now.

If you are patient and set up a secret checking account (which doesn’t pay interest and thus does not appear on taxes), you could in the future hide the cost paid and say you got a great deal on a model closeout sale or B-stock (returned item) sale, etc. (Also you can shop for SVS B-Stock on their website by clicking on the link.) You can be creative. Maybe say that SVS came out with a new lower cost system and it is on special sale for $300, although five speakers and a big subwoofer probably look like they would be worth $500 to her – thus the special sale.

Say if she can’t hear a clear difference between the new and old systems you can return it within 30 days for your money back. There definitely will be an undeniable big difference in low bass output from the SVS subwoofer.

I sat around for two or three years trying to figure out how to get a PB12+2 into my house and money available wasn’t the problem. It was how to get acceptance by my wife and kids for the purchase. This system of hiding purchase cost and stating a lower purchase price, plus a one-time only discontinued item sale (true), was the answer I came up with and it worked for me. As others pointed out, how much do wives spend on shoes, purses and clothing without telling you the real cost or about the purchases at all.

Also, you should be aware that SVS speakers are relatively big and you should study the dimensions carefully to make sure you have space for them. One piece of advice I used was to pick the finish that most closely fits into the room décor. SVS speakers are not décor invisible little cubes (sound quality-ugh), they are a real full range speaker system and are sized accordingly.

 

[Janik]

$300.oo
$500.oo
$1000.00
$1500.oo
$2000.oo
or a lot MORE!

My reason for asking this question is that my wife thinks I've lost my mind wanting to spend 1k for a 5.1 system from SVS (SVS SBS-01 5.1 system). I've been trying to up-grade from a HTiB Curtis speaker system 40w (one speaker per speaker) and a 40w powered sub for two (2) years now.
She also thinks there is no way a 1k speaker system will sound any different than say a $500.oo or even a $300.oo one . So if I could get some data and personal feedback from HTS members to show my wife just how little I'm wanting to spend to get good sound, maybe she'll understand and then again maybe not .

Thanks to all the reply,
hyghwayman

Maybe you should discuss this in terms she is able to understand...
Can you tell the difference between a $300 dress, and a $1000+ dress?? I'll bet you immediately can't, and maybe she can't either, but chances are she will truly believe there is a difference in actual quality, whereas I suspect you will think the extra cost is a complete waste of money.
Your job is to convince her that your quality disernability is in audio systems, is every bit as good as hers is in clothing... without having to buy her the dress to prove it...
Talking

 

[joe68]

WOW isn't marrage great!
So far trough 11 years and 2 kids one 4months new I've managed 1 Nad 705 reciever and a pair of Bose 301s $2300 then 2 pair velodine satalite speakers $350 then a JBL sub $500 then a Denon AVR3000 $1700 with a pair of Paradigm atoms V3s $250+? a paradigm centre 190? $300+ of coarse a 55" big screen TV $2500 ( all i wanted was good 36" ) then the worst purchase a pany HTIB what a pile of junk $300. Now that we added a 42" Lcd Oct 07 $1400 for a different room I soon found it impossible to live with the HTIB and she found it impossible to listen to me, in comes the Yamaha YSP3000 sound bar + sub $1200 not perfect but not to bad and it dosn't take up space. I also up graded the other system with 2 pair of small atoms $250 to retire the velodines and to have a matching set. Plus all of the Satalite, DVD, hardware and the cables $2000 easy over the years. So if you can get 1-2k for just the surround well theres lots of choices, any less than that you won't be happy and she won't be?

 

[joe68]

I am also setting an account to stash some cash but with full disclosure and offered her the same deal (+ the kids for "education" ) so when its time to buy, whatever I want she can not argue nor can I when she buys shoes or clothes, and if its something we both want we can put the money together and buy..... a new boat or something, anyway you get the point.

 

[Exit]

joe68

Cool

 

[hyghwayman]

Not a bump, more of a closing!

To all who posted in this thread, I thank you!

After three+ years I'm happy to say those Curtis speakers no long live in my house. My dreams of owning a SVS system has .........................
wait for it.... not passed but instead it's been put on indefinite hold. The required $$$ has come and gone many times. We bought our 1st house in 2009 and with that came remodeling.

This fall I saw the SP-PK21BS is 5.1 speaker system by Pioneer, the price for what I saw was very doable and while not the set I was shooting for I'm very happy with the improvement. The center channel speaker is huge!

I'm now saving to get the SP-FS51-LR Floor Standing Speakers which i'll swap out with main and move the smaller BS speaker to my rears for a nice sounding 7.1 system .

Thanks again!

Sincerely,
hyghwayman