When showing your system to others, what do you do

First you have to understand that your victim has no idea what you're talking about, and what makes a system worthy of the money you spent.

If soundstaging or imaging were your goal, point that out for the person, if tone, or timber, or even volume were what you wanting to achieve, explain it to them. Tell them how to observe these aspects of the sound. I have found people much more sympathetic when they understood the reason for the system.

Don't jump up every few seconds and put new music on, let them absorb the full impact.

They're all going to think you're crazy, but if you can show some reason behind your purchases, they will think you are less crazy than... the next crazy person.

Don't expect them to love something because you love it. If you push for that they will lie to get you to leave them alone. Rememeber your hobby will seem as bizzarre to a real person as pedophilia does to you. At least I hope it is bizzarre to you!

Ask them what they want to hear. That said I will someday host our audiophile society meeting and plan on putting something really non audiophile on like Mowtown or pop rock. Then the classic evaluation stuff. Regular people are not that interested in the system they care what music they are going to hear.

I found John Marks' suggested demonstration technique in this month's Stereophile, while aimed at a high end retailers, to be an interesting way to demo your system to a person who likes music but doesn't understand why we spend our money on it like we do.