What do you do when the kids come along?

I'll agree with what Artemus said above and add one more thing. When the kids go to bed at night, play your music just like you do now (that means loud if you play it loud). Do this right from the beginning and (hopefully) you won't have problems. I have a 6 & 9 year old, and, to this day, once they've been asleep for 10 or 15 minutes, I can play it at pretty high volume and they sleep right through it.

well first off your audio budget goes to the back burner. so my advice is get your system where you can live with it for a while (believe me; kids are way more important and rewarding than any material thing).

I agree with artemus; i had to hide my tube amps in a corner (behind a couch) where i could not reach the power buttons and used the plugs to turn them on and off.

speaker placement was not the best but a 100lb floor stand will kill a person....let alone a child.

on the positive notes; my children did not know who britney spears was until the neighbor girl got her cd. they do know what a cello is though. (they are 5 &6).

anyway good luck....enjoy yourselves as a married couple....children realllly change your life.

jim

Hdm's advice is right on. I did this with my kids also and it works.

My father always played classical music late at night. When my parents went to bed, they would always find me asleep at the top the stairs. I would sneek out there to listen.

Hdm's probably right about children and my daughter would probably sleep through it ... but my wife wouldn't. You can always invest in a good pair of headphones though.

I think you have to be careful when the kids are very young but, if taught properly, about the care of equipment and the joys of music, you'll be surprised at how young they can pick this stuff up. My eight year old has adjusted fine to a recent change in preamps, knows how to handle cds properly and operates the cd player perfectly. Se definitely knows who Britany Spears and NSync are but she also knows who Mozart, Beethoven and Mussorgsky are too.

Dick