Girlfriends and wifes, how do YOU cope?

Basement, you will hardly find one of the female gender, who is both the woman one would dream of and a true and dyed in the wool audiophile. Why? I suggest you read Slawney's post above..with that proverbial pinch of salt, mind you. The point where I think he's right, is, that we males rather cling to objects, to the other gender, relationship is important. So if we relate more to our hobbies, compared to HER, well then mostly there is fire in the house and the hobby is quite rightly seen as a rival and opposed against.
Besides, you don't need your "significant other" to be an audiophile at all. What you need is a music lover and if you're lucky, she will lend a kindly ear to your efforts in the true sense of the word, be a friend and a critic as well and more often than not, your relationship will deepen and be enriched with and through the common enjoyment of music.

Basement- fwiw I don't hang out with girls that don't express even the slightest interest in the rig. I over heard my latest interest bragging to her friends on how great my stereo sounds and looks; needless to say I felt very good. If they disapprove or don't mind it any attention I don't mind them any attention, a relationship is about mutual respect and admiration and I ain't given up this hobby- so I save us a lot of time. I just can't imagine women not encouraging music in your life, they always seem to love the fact it is my interest. You just have to know when to listen to the rig and when to shut it off(or at least turn it down) and listen to her, listen to stuff she likes(sometimes) and do other things that interest her, once you have that down its a piece of cake- my problem is finding one that is worth the investment of time. There's a million fish in the sea and I must have met half of them- gotta be gettin close!

Basement, I can't imagine being in a relationship where my partner doesn't support my passions; or where I don't support hers. Music can and should enhance relationships and become a part of them -- the music, gear and expenses need to fit into the flow of your journey together. The gear is not the competition, it should be treated by both parties as a vital augmentation of the relationship. Keep looking and you'll find someone who feels that way and wants to support you as much as you support her; like Tim, I feel really great when my partner brags about the sound (equipment is the necessary evil to get the music right).

Slawney; I just took Detlofs' recomendation, first, I had to run for more salt, then I had to read it a few more times while I tried to get my brain to wake up enough to obsorb that level of intellegence.
I feel your pain. Sounds like quite a pickle you were in- while in the process of trying to upgrade your woman, your stereo got downgraded in the process.
And then while taking in your wisdom, I had a nightmere epiphany; what if, given that women are women, and given she was for me the wrong type, and she was an audiophile, what would happen if I tried to switch amps, or cables? would I be in for it? What if she couldn't hear second order distortion? What if her new component obscured detail? Would I be allowed to change VTA? Would I have to work overtime to try to get equipment that was so good, so expensive, that we could both live with it in order to try to save the sound AND the marriage? WOOW!
Whew, I'm back. I would like to retract my statements on points for being an audiophile, and comparing stereos to women. I'm with tireguy-how a woman reacts to our hobby is an indication of things to come. It's the interest in what we have created that is interest in us. The Ozfly hit the nail on the head, it is a two way street, and we should take their advice:
Women are not stereos. You can't upgrade them. We can't add or subtract resisters or change cables to get them to sound the way we want. When the system requires attention, tubes or adjustments, we can get to it whenever with no harm done. People and stereos both have thier advantages.
I'm curious, did you get them back? did they sound the same? How much damage was done?

Jeeze, maybe I am just lucky or I try much harder (If I am really working at it with much more effort that anyone else than I must be doing it subconciously or my wife is feeding me subliminal messages while I sleep). My wife enjoys listening to my audio system, but she does not care what parts it consists of. She just likes to listen. She does not give me grief when I want to make a change of equipment. I should confess however, that I do not change equipment often (No equipment neurosies here). I have only had four speaker systems since I began this audio interest in 1975. The first speakers being the KEF 104ab's.
Anyway here is the last week of my life, balanced between audio and my wife. The audio week began with the arrival of a batch of records from Acoustic Sounds. While we were listening to them my wife made the comment that we should get away for the weekend. The next day, without any further prompting, I made reservations for the weekend in Cape May, NJ. We ate, we shopped, we drank, we stayed out late ( caught a great band named "Black and Tan") returned to the hotel and made "UGH-UGH" noises. We both had a great time. She appreciated that I did something for her, namely getting away for a weekend. The moral here is to think (no!, not just about audio) and not to be selfish.
Oh and just to show that appreciation works, and I know some of you will love this and others will scratch their heads in amazement. As we were driving home from Cape May, on Rt 73, I was being a little devious and intentionally slowed as we approached DeSimone BMW. My wife looked at me and said "I wondered why you chose to take this route." She then said she had no intention of walking around the lot of a closed car dealership. As you can imagine I was a little dissappointed. My wife then said that if I was truely serious about a new car we should go back when they are open so we can do something about it. We are going back this week. Had my eye on a dark green Z3 for a while.