How do you find time to enjoy your $$$ speakers and system?


Maybe this topic is more of recommendation and sharing ideas than a question. We invested in our hifi systems for years to get to a place where we appreciate what our systems sound. Now, how do you find time to enjoy listening to music if many of us work long hours and still need to take care of family, errands etc…I don’t remember when was the last time I spent more than 2 hours a week at the most to enjoy the system I spent $$$ to build. How do you find time to enjoy your system?

128x128analoguefan

I am retired so I have no excuses for not using my system. Every day at 5:00 I enjoy a cup of tea and listen to albums. The wife like my taste in music so all is good. My taste are usually New Age acoustic guitar or piano. Also as much Eva Cassidy as I can find...!

I only listen to my "main" system a couple hours a week, sometimes more, sometimes not at all.  Does that mean I'm not a music lover?

I do have a nice (to me) system in my bedroom that gets used every evening/night.

Also, there's the HT system in the family room.  If the wife is out running errands or at an appointment it's playing music.

There's always the dedicated headphone setup...

FWIW, I attempt to play the guitar and keyboards.  There are only so many hours in a day, even when retired.

Before I retired, I remodeled my man cave.  As part of that, I sold my McIntosh system and gave away my beloved 1980's system and began building my retirement system.  My man cave has a dedicated listening room; a pool table area; an area for my HO train layout; a bar area; and a TV room.

During the winter months, I try to spend several hours per week just listening to music.  At other times, I spend a few hours working on my HO train layout while listening to music in the background. On occasion, my wife may join me - she loves music as well, but she's OK listening to a small system in our sitting room or our whole house system.

During the summer months, I spend less time in the house thus a little less time listening to music (at least during the day).  My wife is an avid golfer, I don't play golf.  When she's on the course, I'm sometimes out with my photography gear taking pictures or riding my bike. 

I think I've found the right balance between sitting on my butt just listening to music and enjoying my other hobbies and favorite activities.  

It is easy for me. My wife and I do not do anything in the house together. She watch’s all the news a fluff tv that I just walk away from.I set her up with a great tv and comfy chair in our family room. My main system is in basement alone with even better tv. All I watch is sports. Why you ask? I do not need to have any volume from tv to know exactly what is going on. This allows me to enjoy the music almost every night while relaxing for a couple hours. Also don’t forget how to keep the family out of your space. Make it too difficult for them to operate. No universal remote, make it so at minimum they need three or more remotes just to turn tv on. 

With my GF only one week a month. When at my place, she's a rock-'n-roll fool and banshee dancer who's fine with 95+ dB sound levels. So EYHO, gents, and in the next life, take more seriously The Beat song "I Want To Be With A Rock-'n Roll Girl" (who loves Mozart too).