I feel the same way. It’s a bummer, but there’s always conversations like these!
Fortunately, my 21 year old is super into music and cinema, so I can share with her. She wasn’t much of a believer in quality components or acoustic treatment until we bought a new house and I could go wild(ish). Now, I have ruined her life because she’s broke and wants what I have. I did square her away with a pair of decent IEMs though, so at least she can have a little of what she wants
A garden variety setup today still sounds better than something high-end did when I was growing up
Man, if this ain’t the truth! Speaker technology has really improved in the last 40 years, and is substantially cheaper than it ever was. And Class D amps?!? HiFi is crazy affordable ( relatively speaking) these days!
It’s not worth it to me to improve on our car’s sound system because the stock one is fully integrated into the dash, and there’s no DIN slot to replace the head unit. It hurts to listen to music in the car, so it’s either podcasts or nothing for me. And usually, it’s nothing…
Besides, for my tastes, you can’t make a car sound good enough for me to invest much in the way of audio improvement. Maybe a head unit, some reasonably priced replacement speakers, and a small sub would be plenty (and maybe overkill) for me in a car
I sent this to her a long time ago, and now we call my hobbies (home improvement/woodworking/audio) “my Legos” as an inside joke. I don’t spend frivolously, and my wife doesn’t mind when I make purchases relating to my hobbies. We’re financially secure and we’re very much aligned in our financial goals and philosophies, so when I buy anything (which isn’t very often), she trusts that the purchase won’t have a negative effect on our finances. She even gets a little excited for me when something arrives at the house. It’s very nice to be supported in this way
It’s also possible people just don’t care about those details, so they’re not primed to notice them. For example, another difference between my wife and I: she’s into sunsets, clouds, the moon, and celestial happenings. She’s constantly in awe about these things, points them out to me, and talks about them all the time. It’s cute; I love that about her. However, I really couldn’t care much less about any of it. For me, that kind of stuff happens all the time (every day, in the case of sunsets). It’s not novel or interesting to me in the same way as it is to her. We all have things we nerd out about, and I think the world would be kind of boring if we all only cared about the same stuff.
Really, my only regret about this situation is that I want to give my wife the gift of feeling like I do when I hear music and when I notice the details, and I know she wants to give me that gift of the way she feels when there’s a really cool cloud or sunset. It’s very fulfilling to share feelings like that with someone you care about, and it’s sad to me that we sometimes can’t.
I’m into this, especially sound quality. I have a top-of-the-bottom/bottom-of-the-middle 5.2.4 setup for movies and listen to music on that same space as well. I have made solid progress on acoustically treating my space, and it sounds pretty good.
My wife, who has done all the A-B testing with me and understands what high quality equipment and a well-treated space brings to the table would be perfectly happy watching Netflix on her phone speaker.
I know for sure she does not hear things like I hear them. I have a couple of demo tracks I use to evaluate changes in my system, and I have described to her what I’m listening for (soundstage depth, for example), and she cannot distinguish whether or not this quality exists. So, I think one part of this is that there is something cognitive going on that she and I perceive things so differently. Another thing that I think is different between us is the way music affects us. For me, music is an emotional experience and ties deeply with my memories of events/time periods/feelings. When I hear a song, I know the artist, facts about the band and its members, the name of the song, the album, and I can describe the album art. My wife, on the other hand, usually can’t remember the names of her favorite songs or who the artist is. And, like, no shade on my wife for this at all; I’m just saying we experience these things much differently, and I think that may be illustrative of the differences your seeing with other people too.
Additionally, as far as diminishing returns go, I think a lot of people do not understand the importance of acoustic treatment. You’re listening to your room, not your speakers. You can’t out-speaker a bad sounding room at any cost. If you think you want new speakers to upgrade your sound quality and have given zero thought to room acoustics, you should do a little investigation before upgrading your equipment. I think that money is better spent elsewhere first.
Once you have a good sounding space to listen, I really don’t think most people need to spend any more than 10k (at the extreme upper limit) for a pair of speakers for 2 channel listening. That said, I have been in a fantastic room with a $15k pair of Sonus Faber speakers, and I have been chasing that feeling for a couple of years now.
BJJ might be accessible for you. I used to roll with a blind guy who fucked me up on the regular
No yield. Only mortal combat.
album from Bjork’s first band
Yeah, I tried. I just couldn’t enjoy it all. Maybe I have pedestrian tastes or just don’t “get it,” but whatever the case, all of those were very unenjoyable to me.
I was actually at a function last night talking music with a group of folks, and a couple folks chastised me for not liking the velvet underground with Nico album as well. It’s all good; I’m not claiming to be a music critic or anything and y’all still get to love albums I can’t stand
Damn! I haven’t gotten any of those yet, but I think we might need to fight a little when I do! I’ll save this and get back to you!
I have been fighting my way through the "1,001 albums you must listen to before you die’ list, and there have been some truly terrible albums.
New York Dolls, debut album
Brian Eno, my life in the bush of ghosts
Marquee Moon, television
Slade, slayed?
Sugarcube, life’s too good
Barry Adamson, Oedipus Schmoedipus
Animal collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
Heaven 17, Penthouse And Pavement
And the worst album I have ever heard on my life, king of garbage music Lou Reed and his garbage band of notmusic and pretention: The velvet underground, The Velvet Underground & Nico
Have I lost track of what memes are?
Or is it the children who are wrong?
I offered to do the same and was literally scoffed at, then reprimanded for my audacity. It was a really fucking shitty experience.
While true, it definitely depends on your particular TSA team. I have flown multiple times with firearms within the US, and normally TSA follows their own rules pretty well. However, I have had TSA DEMAND my key so they could open the case outside of my presence. When I protested and gave them the handout of their own procedures, the guy said “you can give me the key, or you don’t get on your flight.”
I personally think so too, but when I consulted with my wife about that style recently, she informed me that seam and the ruffles are to prevent the leggings material from thinning out and becoming transparent when doing squats or bendy yoga stuff.
So, they’re made for actually working out, even though I basically only see them at the grocery store and shit
Granted, I’m a fucking idiot, but was anyone EVER rooting for homelander? He was an obvious piece of shit from the outset, and in my opinion, people from almost any political bent would have acknowledged that.
Like, I see this sentiment that “homelander was making fun of you the whole time and you didn’t know it” meme, but I feel like it attacks a strawman that completely did not/does not exist.
Yeah, you definitely need help negotiating
Probably with a family of 10 or 11 people, nothing has a chance to go bad