Wife trouble

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.

Guess I'm just lucky. Wife has her own 50-pound tube amp in bedroom, with floor standing Audio Physics speakers.
hence no problems with the living room system, which is normally quite un-WAFy.

Man, guys in this post are so incredibly audio savvy. I'm not that good (yet). But I love the kiss approach to audio. I don't have a basement or a man cave so all I have to work with is my living room.  My wife mentioned going to the furniture store to go get that #*%! console but that's cool. I can say I had my starter set and might even upgrade by going smaller like joshelston said. Who knows, Might actually put my def tech.'s on Audiogon soon. Probably better anyway, my five month old is a terror on his walker so don't think towers would last too long anyway. It's kinda fun thinking about how you can change/upgrade (when $ allows for it). I guess it's like they say...it's never a destination it's about the journey. 

My wife loves music as much as I do and comes upstairs to appreciate it -- in my dedicated audio room.

"Worst day married is better than my best day as a bachelor...."
WOW!!!!! LOLOLOLOL. I feel for you buddy...