Integrating speakers into contemporary decor - can WAF ever be overcome?

I have not read all opinions in this thread to be frank... :)

But most wife at least half of them, dont think about speakers being a beautiful design but an annoyance to keep clean which obstruct their free walk in the room and dont go well with their "own object of beauty" ... At least the wife who dont listen music much if at all, as my wife...

I solved the problem with headphones, but most headphones are in my experience not satisfying compared to a dedicated audio room ... But luckily when the child go out for their own life, i picked a left room from my speakers and dedicated it to them for many years ...

I just sold my house this year though , i must forget speakers in the NEW living room for sure...I was sad...

Luckily. i own an AKG K340 a marvel when optimized right which help me forgetting about my dedicated acoustic room for good  ...So much, i know i will never need any upgrade, and trust me i am very picky for sound and acoustic translation of music ... They are more than good...

«Speakers are only most of the time useless  empty boxes to clean »-Groucho Marx wife 🤓

It's one thing if your partner believes there's no speaker she could live with, based on limited knowledge of the possibilities and another thing if she's flat out unwilling to accept that audio is a passion for you and cannot simply be "sidestepped". You can most likely work through the first scenario but not the second. For your sake, I hope greater exposure to the variety of speaker designs leads to a solution that works for both of you.

@avidlistener, good sensible post.

@hartf36, cheers. My current speakers are rather ugly being large OB with a 15" driver and my wife loves them because of the sound. We spend many happy hours listening to a wide variety of music. Tonight we're taking Jacob Gurevitsch for another spin.

@OP, good luck.

If you can't reach a trade off where you get speakers she doesn't particularly like and she gets something in other rooms she likes, consider investing in an acoustically transparent movie screen (possibly a motor driven one that lowers from the ceiling). It would make the room look smaller but no speakers would be in evidence. A 10 foot screen would cover a lot of systems'' speakers,

If she still objects get a picture of your dear wife and have it projected on the screen, telling her that you can't think of anything more attractive that could replace the look of your speakers

@kletter1mann --sounds like our wives are twins--my wife is/was an interior designer and sold very high end Italian contemporary but we collected Asian when we lived in Indonesia and Singapore -- and all our art is contemporary abstract (except my sanctuary where vestiges that a man actually lives here exist).  The short answer to your question is probably not, but the only way to approach it is to take her to various high end shops, if available, and let her look.  I did that and it was a failure so we have in-walls in the great room but fortunately i have a listening room and she never sets foot in there.  Good luck