I think you guys forgot to mention the kids as well, in addition to the wife. Although I love them all so dearly, I would definitely be in audio nirvana with the money that comes out of the monthly paycheck to support the family. I guess the world really is divided into the haves and the have nots, that is, those with wife and those without, those with kids and those without, which are probably highly correlated with those with super audio systems and those without..... :)
What would you do differently?
Wives take a lot of heat in the audio press and on forums such as this one for their effects on their husbands' audio enjoyment. WAF is a recognizable acronym and effect, and there's always a lot of anguish over the "grief" of upgrades, etc. What would you do differently if you had nobody to answer to on any audio issues? Is it as simple as, "I'd spend a lot more and play the system a lot louder"?
Personally, I'd do a couple of things differently. First, I'd probably own more than one pair of speakers at any time and experiment a bit more. Sending and receiving speakers seems incomprehensible to my wife so it's a bigger hurdle than it's worth to do this currently, even if I break even on the costs. The second major thing I'd do is remove everything from the semi-dedicated room the system is in that I didn't want in there.
All in all, I suppose the back pressure is good as it keeps a bit of anticipation in the hobby. -Kirk