Girlfriends and wifes, how do YOU cope?

Hi,
For a CD only bedroom system near $1K I'd start with the original top-loading Rega Planet CD player--Easy to load in the dark and much beloved by Stereophile. About $425, used.
It's very "live" sounding, plus it's musical and "analog-like", and is a great transport should you ever wish to upgrade.
Next, you can get a good deal on a used AMC 3030a tube hybrid class A integrated amp for about $300. It was also well-ranked by Stereophile and sounds superb. It has 4 ohm and 8 ohm speaker taps, but prefers higher impedance speakers.
Speakers are so much a matter of taste, as well as room and location-dependent I hardly know where to start.
What are your musical tastes? What is important to you, sonically? What isn't? Where will the speakers be?
I can say that I wouldn't spend more than around $400, tops on them, even better: half that.
If you spend about $100 on used interconnects by Alpha Core Goertz, Harmonic Tech, or Nordost and $100 on speaker cable (Monster's Powerline 2's still a bargain) total system cost comes out at about $1200.
That's nearly a "Class C" Stereophile system end-to-end.

I guess I'm lucky. My wife has as good a pair of ears as I do. and she wants her Miles Davis records to sound as good as they possibly can.
The other day, she said to be, "Honey, I think you need some tube traps."
And I fell in love all over again.
To be fair to LGBT community--as well as wives and girlfriends , the question should be,"Partners, how do YOU cope?"