Have you ever deceived your wife-audio purchase

In years past I would install new (or new to me gear) when no one would see new gear bring put on the rack. I would be amused that invariably it would takes even as long as a year for my spouse to notice the new piece, by which time I easily said, no, it's not new.

These days I do as I please, in plain sight.

who me????? never...... actually she doesn't care, our (my) rule has always been that I do not use our paychecks to finance my hobbies. I do work on the side, buy and sell stuff and basically wheel and deal to fund my and my son's hobbies. Last year I went to an estate sale and bought a complete house of Audio Design Associates gear and a few pairs of McIntosh speakers.....it took a while to sell everything but I profited $3500. I gave my wife $1000 to spend on herself and bought a brand new conrad-johnson preamp.... it was $1500 plus my trade in....with the remaining $1000 and some money derived from other sales I picked up a pair of Revel M106 speakers...I sold my other speakers and an amp that I was no longer using and bought a new NAD M51 DAC.

Yes, very amuseing thread, I too, do what I want in audio, I will not hide it, she helps me make the decisions, no matter the cost, it's about whats best for the system that we can afford.

Following up on my recent response my wife asked me today if my CD player was new. In fact, it's several years old and over a year ago she asked the same question.

But why should I be surprised? I had surgey last week (for real!) and she barely noticed. I had to find rides to the hospital and to home when I was discharged. Oh well, I guess that's the trade off, my stereo and I are largely ignored.

No, she's cool. She even puts up with four systems in a house that's not all that large. But I clear every substantial purchase before I make it, just to be respectful and keep her on board.