He spent his life building a $1 million stereo. The real cost was unfathomable.

" How many of us can say we don't have skeletons in our closets that if revealed to the public would be devastating to us or our families ?"

Speaking for myself, me. Not even close. I'm sure many others here can answer the same.

Reading this article, my impression of the man is that he was a selfish, self absorbed jerk not worthy of his family. 

Some concentrate in music to forgot their not so friendlier family too ...

How do we decide ?

Myself i dont know and i did not bother to read the article because of his tone...

I am a "fool" myself in the same way but with less money...my wife and children were friendly and loving ... A mad man need care ... 😊

Reading the article, I came to a much different conclusion than most here. Here is a very bright guy that provided very nicely for his family. He had a lifelong love of music and pursued it vigorously. He built most of his gear so the project s were a labor of love not a massive outlay of money. I have no idea how the “million dollar system” description was arrived at. He was a workaholic that owned his own business and provided very well for his family. Some people collect cars, they don’t receive the “this guy is nuts” labels appropriated tho audiophiles. His wife didn’t like his hobby and one of his sons had issues with his father. The rest seemed to be OK with their father. Obviously there is not enough information to make judgments about the family dynamics or assign blame. Some hobbies are solitary by nature. Audio is not necessarily one of them. I sold a pair of Levinson monoblocks to a couple from Baltimore. They came down picked them up and listened to my system for a while. Surprisingly, it was the wife that had the greater passion for the hobby (very unusual). I think the bigger problem is people that have no passion in life. That phenomenon seems to be the unjustified cause of grievance of others enjoyment. Who is the selfish party in this scenario? What causes unhealthy relationships is people that are solely dependent on interactions with others for emotional satisfaction. Balance is key in all aspects of life. Between running his own business and his passion for music he may not have shared enough time with his family. His passion was not destructive. He was not excessively into alcohol, drugs or gambling. It’s no one’s fault that only a very small percentage of people are passionately into music.

@posbwp55 

Congratulations on that whitewash, but I think that it was made clear that his passion was far from solitary, and if you think that it's ok to make your children literal slaves to your hobby, then I'm not sure what behavior you would consider to be obsessive. 

Reflection in order and compassion… and a better plan for my eventual passing….

Aside - I attended a nice music listening event last evening to honor the life and memory of a music club co-founder. Bit of a fund raiser for his favorite charities….