WAF - music to my ears

Women have better hearing than men. They respond to high frequency distortion and high noise floors immediately. Unless, the music is presented without harshness and digital edge, they do not respond to the music.

So, changes in your system have probably not decreased the edge to music, but the recording mastering has.

My partner of 37 years has accompanied me on trips to high end stores and listened to my system. Until my current system (under my UserID) has typically responded poorly because of the high frequency (SS) hash and distortion. A really bad recording will still send her running… but only on <1% of recordings. The all tube system, that emphasizes musicality is forgiving enough for even a women to enjoy. Thank you Audio Research.

I do agree with this in that my wife and daughters are hardly hifi people or audiophiles but they have commented when something is changed in my system for the better or worse, and this just from being around and hearing the music from afar.  What they say is usually pretty spot on.

I have a dedicated "mancave" listening room I made in my basement 20 years ago. My wife never listens to my downstairs system. (Its under my user profile) She does notice when I play things she likes from upstairs. "I haven’t heard that song in a while." The room I made is a bit barbaric looking and not real pretty, but it is loaded with room treatments, bass absorbers, diffusers, ect. so if sounds pretty good. Making this move many years ago was the best thing I have done. I am lucky we had the extra space. 2 Days ago she commented that the volume was not disturbing to her late at night. She brought this up because a night prior I came up earlier than I wanted since my new modified amp was playing but I didn’t want to keep her awake. So she took me to the bedroom when I had my amp breaking and and showed me that "see it’s not very loud in here I can easily fall asleep if the music isn’t obnoxious." So if I play things we both like and I can go on for hours into the evening now. Win-Win!