WAF

[panteragstk]

I refer to WAF from time to time, but I often exaggerate for intended (but likely ineffective) comedic effect. It's definitely an issue for some people though. I don't think the wives are necessarily crazy either. Some audio equipment is ugly and it can look really out of place in some rooms.

My wife is relatively tolerant of my audio stuff, but she does sense the leverage her veto power has and she will use it as a bargaining chip at times. This tends to be based on cost, not appearance (e.g. "Honey, we just spend $$$$$ on that new audio gear, I'd really like a new $$$$$")("$$$$$" being a new item she wants that is typically very similar in cost to the latest audio gear*). I'm not sure if this is truly a "WAF" situation because she normally accepts the audio gear purchase, but the acceptance comes with $ strings attached.

My hypothesis is that the WAF is inversely proportional to the SMI (Spousal Misery Index)(yes, I just made that up). Basically, if one buys audio gear with a low WAF, one will experience a high SMI.

*Drifting into legal jargon, this includes an implied estoppel argument. If I say we don't have the money for what she wants, her response is that I just spent that amount on the audio gear, so it can't be true that we can't also afford whatever it is she wants.

This ties in directly with the hot/crazy scale. Basically, the willingness of men to put up with crazy in direct proportion to the hotness of the one the crazy is coming from. (not to be taken seriously as a true measure of crazy)

 

[panteragstk]

"What are these speakers really going to cost me? A car or a diamond?"

I'm so glad my wife thinks expensive jewelry is silly.

Plus, her cookware obsession (I use it more than her) easily makes up the difference. Probably.

 

[cpp]

I'm so glad my wife thinks expensive jewelry is silly.

Mine does to, but she does love her cars.

 

[panteragstk]

I have a lot of speakers. I also have a lot of rooms and decor to consider. One mistake I see a lot of folks make is buy speakers that simply over power a room with size/looks. People do this with furniture too so I'm sure everyone has seen someone that has a couch that's too big for a room. Same concept.

One thing I really tried to do was to have things sound good, while looking as good as they can. My office is the one room that's not "pretty" when it comes to all my speakers placed in that room. Remembering that there are 11 speakers and a sub then you can imagine why that's difficult. Especially given that 4 of my bed channels are towers and the center isn't exactly tiny. However, it doesn't look bad at all. I need to hide wires, but that's the only issue.

My main living room didn't allow for any cabinet speakers. In walls wouldn't have worked well either so we went with all in-ceiling. It's the room where picture and sound quality matter the least so I'm good with it. It actually is pretty good considering. You can't even tell there are speakers in the room unless they're loud enough to make people look for them.

The theater isn't big so to get proper speaker placement, including behind my AT screen, I went with @shadyJ recommendation for in-walls/in-ceiling for my 7.4.4 Atmos install. It sounds excellent, and you can hardly tell there are speakers in the room, other than the subs. I will do cabinet speakers in my next theater since I just think they're better. I could do custom in-walls, but I'm not there just yet.

My master bedroom has a TV and soundbar. I don't like wall mounted TVs simply because most people don't do them well. I did it in this room, but everything is hidden. When the TV isn't in use, it's behind a cabinet I built. Works great.

So, my systems have all taken decor into consideration, not because of WAF, but because it is what we both wanted and it worked out great. We both enjoy all of it equally. We have always loved watching movies so a theater was a no brainer.

Not to talk her into a new projector instead of flooring...

 

[panteragstk]

Mine does to, but she does love her cars.

Mine is timid behind the wheel. She's good with what she has and I'll let her think that as long as she wants. Especially since we just payed off both vehicles.

 

[Swerd]

This ties in directly with the hot/crazy scale. Basically, the willingness of men to put up with crazy in direct proportion to the hotness of the one the crazy is coming from. (not to be taken seriously as a true measure of crazy)

Love your graphic analysis . When I was younger, I would have agreed completely. But now that I'm older and wiser, I suggest that the vertical axis, the Crazy scale, be plotted as a log scale, not linear. A range of 4-10 CU (Crazy Units) isn't nearly enough.

The same might be said for the Hotness scale. But, most men readily understand the 1 to 10 Hotness scale if it's presented as a linear scale. Besides, make-up and aging tend to negate the Hotness extremes. Beauty is fleeting – but Crazy is forever.

 

[Mr._Clark]

But returning to my previous point, elegant design with the crop of current audio products is a huge challenge. In the living environment that is a definite problem that we do not address enough.

Interior designers are a particular problem, as they are either not taught, or do not understand, the concept of form and function. Without understanding the principles of that approach, there is no chance for elegant functional design.

I'm under the impression that home audio is not keeping up with the changes brought on by inexpensive large flat screen TVs (and perhaps to a lesser degree the layouts of modern homes). Existing audio equipment is fine for dedicated home theater rooms, but many people are using (or trying to use) the audio equipment in the main rooms of their houses along with wall-mounted flat screen TVs.

Speakers seem to be the biggest challenge when it comes to getting decent sound without having the speakers dominate the appearance of the room. Based on a sample size of 2 (my wife and a home detonator we know)(credit to @highfigh for "home detonator") the consensus is that large flat screen TVs are okay in main rooms of houses, but big tower speakers are not. I'm not sure what the answer is, but it would be nice if the speaker companies were able to develop more speaker options that blend with a typical wall mounted flat screen TV yet provide decent sound. I find myself wondering if a hybrid between in-wall and on-wall speakers would be a viable option (e.g. 4 inches in the wall, 4 inches protruding, and good aesthetics for the protruding portion that blend with a large screen TV between the speakers.

 

[Mikado463]

Thankfully I have my 'man cave' ..........

 

[Swerd]

I can tell you one thing I have noticed, for a very long time, women are far more discerning of audio flaws than men. The guy may think he has audio nirvana and his wife disagree. In my experience she is more likely to be right. I think part of this problem is that many women are unimpressed with the result.

However get them used to really good audio, and they are hooked and quickly become intolerant of shortcomings. They tend to spot good sound, even if they do not know why.

I can personally confirm what you've pointed out. Years ago, when I first wanted to buy Salk SongTowers, my wife agreed but only if I first agreed to replacing the vinyl sheet kitchen floor with hand-laid tiles. I did. But when we finally got the SongTowers, and listened to them for a few months, she told me she was spoiled by them. If she heard music that she liked, in the car or at someone else's house, she wanted me to buy it so we could hear it properly.

She also mentioned how she never much cared for the JBL speakers I previously had. Ever the polite southerner, she avoided saying anything about them for fear it might injure my male pride.

To add more to the concept of Wife Approval Factor, get your wife involved in choosing the finish of the speaker cabinet. Jim Salk completely understands that concept. We have a cherry veneered wall system cabinets & bookshelves. He suggested I send him a daylit photograph, and he could make suggestions. He spoke directly to my wife, convincing her that what she really wanted was untinted, clear-coated cherry. Ever since then, my wife has repeatedly told me how much she likes their appearance. And she rarely, if ever, mentions that kitchen floor.

Interior designers are a particular problem, as they are either not taught, or do not understand, the concept of form and function. Without understanding the principles of that approach, there is no chance for elegant functional design.

Fully agree with you.

 

[lovinthehd]

Or skip the wife and do what you like....while a wife was a consideration a long time ago, the best candidate didn't work out (more accurately, I didn't work out for her goals in terms of that relationship commitment...she even already had a kid with my name so we were "big" and "little" xxx for a while....he was a great guy and later got into mountain biking which made me very happy since I had just gotten hooked at the time (definitely part of the equation). I have two married friends coming to visit tomorrow and definitely have wondered what the WAF differences might be between my batchelor man cave house and their waf restricted ones....

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

WAF. Is. Stoopid.

 

[lovinthehd]

WAF. Is. Stoopid.

For the extremely PW'd? Hard to know from my viewpoint, just would consider it intolerable that we'd disagree on something so basic....then again many wives' interior decoration "skills" are less than desirable in the first place....but PW syndrome comes in here

 

[lovinthehd]

I might have some comments form the other side of WAF as have two different family guys visiting this weekend for some mountain biking.....my place is a definite man cave compared to what many gals would like.

 

[Eppie]

We joke about WAF all of the time but it's a matter of respect. We both worked full time. We both paid off the mortgage. Both our names are on title. I would have to be a complete ass to tell my wife, screw you, I'm doing whatever I feel like. I may use the space more than she does, but she also enjoys the HT experience on occasion. It's a partnership so I ask her opinion on the things she cares about. She cares about decor, but we still always shop together. Every paint colour, carpet pattern and big piece of furniture was purchased together. We have similar tastes so there have never been any big arguments.

Household finances are going to affect this of course. Some couples keep separate bank accounts, and thus are free to spend what they want as long as the bills get paid. We've had a joint account since we bought the house, which was before we got married. I look at things logically and separate finances leads to arguments about who contributes how much and who pays for what. We do have separate savings accounts for personal stuff so as to maintain some autonomy but it's all about balance. I'll admit I'm blessed, though. My wife is not a shopper, like some of our neighbours who seem to bring shopping bags home every week. She loves to travel and worked as a travel consultant, so she saves up for big trips and I let her do all of the planning. Car is on it's last breath? She saves up for a down payment on the next one. We have a great relationship and while I consider us decidedly middle-class and far from wealthy, we rarely argue about finances.

So, yeah, if I put a big screen in the living room, she'll get a say as to where it goes and what style cabinet we'll get for the components. I'll pick out the model and features as that's my area of expertise, but she'll have a say on what the budget will be. If I wanted to do all of this entirely on my own, well, I wouldn't have gotten married in the first place then.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

We joke about WAF all of the time but it's a matter of respect. We both worked full time. We both paid off the mortgage. Both our names are on title. I would have to be a complete ass to tell my wife, screw you, I'm doing whatever I feel like. I may use the space more than she does, but she also enjoys the HT experience on occasion. It's a partnership so I ask her opinion on the things she cares about. She cares about decor, but we still always shop together. Every paint colour, carpet pattern and big piece of furniture was purchased together. We have similar tastes so there have never been any big arguments.

Household finances are going to affect this of course. Some couples keep separate bank accounts, and thus are free to spend what they want as long as the bills get paid. We've had a joint account since we bought the house, which was before we got married. I look at things logically and separate finances leads to arguments about who contributes how much and who pays for what. We do have separate savings accounts for personal stuff so as to maintain some autonomy but it's all about balance. I'll admit I'm blessed, though. My wife is not a shopper, like some of our neighbours who seem to bring shopping bags home every week. She loves to travel and worked as a travel consultant, so she saves up for big trips and I let her do all of the planning. Car is on it's last breath? She saves up for a down payment on the next one. We have a great relationship and while I consider us decidedly middle-class and far from wealthy, we rarely argue about finances.

So, yeah, if I put a big screen in the living room, she'll get a say as to where it goes and what style cabinet we'll get for the components. I'll pick out the model and features as that's my area of expertise, but she'll have a say on what the budget will be. If wanted to do all of this entirely on my own, well, I wouldn't have gotten married in the first place then.

This.

 

[highfigh]

*Drifting into legal jargon, this includes an implied estoppel argument. If I say we don't have the money for what she wants, her response is that I just spent that amount on the audio gear, so it can't be true that we can't also afford whatever it is she wants.

Have you tried "But, I spent everything we had"?

 

[highfigh]

I can tell you one thing I have noticed, for a very long time, women are far more discerning of audio flaws than men. The guy may think he has audio nirvana and his wife disagree. In my experience she is more likely to be right. I think part of this problem is that many women are unimpressed with the result.

However get them used to really good audio, and they are hooked and quickly become intolerant of shortcomings. They tend to spot good sound, even if they do not know why.

But returning to my previous point, elegant design with the crop of current audio products is a huge challenge. In the living environment that is a definite problem that we do not address enough.

Interior designers are a particular problem, as they are either not taught, or do not understand, the concept of form and function. Without understanding the principles of that approach, there is no chance for elegant functional design.

Better hearing acuity in women has been known for a long, long time. Men tend to do things that lead to hearing loss, whether due to carelessness, stupidity (trying to prove they're invincible) or accidental exposure.

I used to think that tailoring an audio system to the listener by having their hearing tested and making the appropriate response changes would be a great way to make it possible to provide the best sound. For about a minute. If the person lives alone and nobody else ever listens to the system, that's great but if more people will be using it at the same time, that flies out the window because they'll all hear it differently and the best solution is to find good compromises or to have presets for each person AND for general consensus.

Interior designers only care about a few things- their reputation, the money they can make and seeing every project as a tribute to their talents and taste. That's all coming from their ego and, while their clients often say they love the way it looks, living in it doesn't always agree. I have seen homeowners come up with the design, contact the contractors and get a remodel started and finished far faster than some general contractors and the best thing for the homeowners- they get what THEY want, not what the designer wants.

 

[highfigh]

I used those screw caps on a project. Put in a new bathroom with a tub with water jets, so I needed a front panel that was removable for servicing. Didn't like the overpriced plastic panels available so I made a wooden one and painted it white. 6 screws with caps and caulking across the top was enough to keep it in place without vibrating. I figured the matching white caps would look decorative. Not sure if it would make highfigh's approval.

There are many ways to attach a panel without the screw caps- look at a variety of speaker grills and you'll see some good ones. Most recently, small rare earth magnets have become the 'go to' for this and they're invisible.

I'll shoot a couple of photos of the speaker plates when I go to the house where the existing equipment will be removed- they really look bad, IMO.

Here's one model from Polk-

 

[highfigh]

(credit to @highfigh for "home detonator") t

For the sake of credit where credit is due, I got that from my friend, who is the project architect I mentioned- he's not a fan of them.

 

[Eppie]

This.

You, sir, are a man of few words. Me, not so much.