My wife has stopped asking. Therefore, I've stopped bending the truth.
I used to think she didn't know when a change was made. Ha! Then one day I changed out a black ARC preamp for a different black ARC preamp with the same number of knobs, switches, etc. She walked by a few days later and said "hey that's different". I was so suprised there was no way to get out of it through obvious double-talk, the trade up stories, etc. The worst part was, it wasn't even mine, I was just playing with a friends pre and re-tubing it for him.
A while back she came up with a new scheme (my music room had become relatively packed with gear by then). The new rule became that if I brought something in, I had to remove something of equal volume. She would actually stand there with a tape measure and calculate volume as I brought things in. That backfired however, when I figured out I could remove equipment in advance of a pending purchase. I'd be hauling stuff out, declaring it's volume and explain it was for the new speakers I hadn't gotten yet.
Then I finally broke down and got a 3rd job that just paid for the audio hobby alone. That pretty much stopped the issue in it's tracks. I explain up front that she should expect to see a new XXX in about 6 months. 6 months later you can have 3 buddies over to haul it in, make a mess, make noise far too late into the night and it goes just fine. Maybe being straight about everything but price helps. We both know she doesn't want to know.
I'm glad to see this thread again. I re-read the whole thing and it made me laugh again many times.
I used to think she didn't know when a change was made. Ha! Then one day I changed out a black ARC preamp for a different black ARC preamp with the same number of knobs, switches, etc. She walked by a few days later and said "hey that's different". I was so suprised there was no way to get out of it through obvious double-talk, the trade up stories, etc. The worst part was, it wasn't even mine, I was just playing with a friends pre and re-tubing it for him.
A while back she came up with a new scheme (my music room had become relatively packed with gear by then). The new rule became that if I brought something in, I had to remove something of equal volume. She would actually stand there with a tape measure and calculate volume as I brought things in. That backfired however, when I figured out I could remove equipment in advance of a pending purchase. I'd be hauling stuff out, declaring it's volume and explain it was for the new speakers I hadn't gotten yet.
Then I finally broke down and got a 3rd job that just paid for the audio hobby alone. That pretty much stopped the issue in it's tracks. I explain up front that she should expect to see a new XXX in about 6 months. 6 months later you can have 3 buddies over to haul it in, make a mess, make noise far too late into the night and it goes just fine. Maybe being straight about everything but price helps. We both know she doesn't want to know.
I'm glad to see this thread again. I re-read the whole thing and it made me laugh again many times.