HiFi dealers & audiophile wife problems

You need to control your language. Audiogon is hounding me about mine, and they better be hounding you about yours...

Good for you, but most of these guys are going to have to justify the larger "pleasure indulgence" expenditures in their life to their wife, and I see nothing wrong with that. I'm just glad I'm not married yet, and feel sorry for those that are (with regards to this hobby), heh heh heh. Just like I feel sorry for those that don't have a dedicated listening room...might as well listen out in the street during rush hour...

You should try Sennheiser HD600's, and a tube headphone amp. If it helps save your marriage, it'd be worth it, would it not? I have these, and they are exquisite! Recently I went 6 weeks without even using loudspeakers, because the 600's are that good (once they're broken in some, once you try a tube headphone amp)......................I can speak to the issue of imaging with headphones. Not that the experience is "better" than speakers in your properly set up room...but, with even with "normal" stereo recordings done well (of symphony orchestras, or even jazz ensembles), THE INSIDE OF YOUR HEAD becomes as if it were anywhere from 50 feet to 400 feet in diameter, depending on the recording. If that's not a unique and mesmorizing expereince in itself, I don't know what is! Give it a try, you'll thank me later...................And I agree, your wife is being closed minded about it. My sister-in-law is the exact same way, there's no reasoning with her. Yet she'd sacrifice 30 years off the end of her life, if it meant she could get even an ounce more out of her gardening. It's all about personal likes, priorities, tastes, obsessions. That's why I'm glad I don't have the trouble yet....

They are NOT $500, they're only $349, and perhaps Ubid.com carries them, I don't know. You could find used ones on occasion for $200 to $280, or perhaps endeavor to befriend a dealer who'll let you have 'em new for a few dollars over their cost...............Um, they aren't the "only" headphone manufacturer that Walmart doesn't carry, heh heh heh. Stax comes to mind..............The headphone amp will add to the cost of course, but you can start out without one. The sound is unmistakably "highend", even with my 10 year old Sony AM/FM Walkman!! I usually have to avoid the classical station, or else risk losing my concentration for 20 minutes or more...being unable to type on the computer, and having the music and soundfield totally absorb me! (And this is NOT with one of those headphone "surround" processors, either)..............I used to be skeptical about headphones too, until I bought these. AND I DO LOVE DVD MOVIES WITH THEM. Watched "Heat" recently (while everyone else was asleep), moved the easy chair close to the 35 inch screen, was completely lost in the story. The shootout scene when they rob the bank was making me feel a little nauseated...with fear! I forgot I wasn't really there with them in the street, with the gunfire and shattering glass, and cops dying...the surround effects came from WAY outside my head (and down the virtual "street")...AGAIN, WITHOUT ANY EXTRA HEADPHONE SURROUND PROCESSORS! Just the headphone jack on the DVD player. Very, VERY "real" sounding...

You're welcome.