Wife trouble

I have a room in the basement too. We refinished it and my wife told me that my JBL L7s were too ugly for the new space. So I bought a big, beautiful pair of 4' tall rbh floorstanders in a nice maple. She hasn't complained about any of my other gear...

All joking aside, I like being in the basement. I can put up acoustic panels and do weird scheiße that even I wouldn't want to do upstairs. It's nice to have a room optimized for an audio aesthetic, but I prefer my main floor to be optimised for a visual aesthetic.

That's the right perspective!

Another option: my wife wasn't psyched on big speakers upstairs, hence my listening room downstairs, which gives me more leeway, as mentioned. But upstairs in the open plan kitchen/dining/living area, I've installed a system with 4 small, white speakers in the corners, up against the ceiling and an in wall sub in the back of our breakfast bar. It's inconspicuous, sounds reasonably good and still let's us have family dance parties..

When I'm downstairs listening, my wife and/or kids will often come down and hang. As has been mentioned by others, I've also occasionally bought some vinyl that I knew my wife (Nora Jones) or kids (Lukas Graham, Gorillaz) would love, just to surprise them on those very occasions.

Families can be amazing. And are far more important than any system.

@escritorjuan that's a great looking room. The panels look good! I don't know how much they'll help the OP, as his wife has her sights set on an entertainment center that spans the whole front wall. From what I understand, it's like a credenza or sidebar.

It’s a good thought.. I just don’t think he’s going to be able to use his floor standers after his wife gets the console. Going on past experience, if the wife buys a big piece of furniture she loves the probability of her being ok with floor standers positioned directly in front of it is extremely close to zero.

I do like your idea of moveable panels.. I’ve been toying with that idea for my room, as I’ve a wall of glass on my left and don’t want curtains. Did you use any plans for your panels?

Sounds easy! I ended up buying my panels online a while back, but for a moveable set, I think DIY is the way.

Never tried, but I'm interested to hear from those who have.