Need help for wife acceptance

Since I am a female, I will try to answer this one with that in mind. Years ago, before I got involved in hi-end stereo, I used to look at wires, speakers, stereo equipment as just cluttered furniture. After I started getting interested in the high end, I started looking at them in a different way - more like part of the atmosphere of a room. If you can get her more interested in this hobby, she will start looking at them from a different perspective. Does she listen to the music with you? Ask her what some of her favorite music is, then buy some cd's for her and listen together. Hope this helps

My setup resembles Jeff's, but required less drilling:
My monos are sitting on hanging metal brackets purchased at HD for $7 each, hanging from the 2x8 basement ceiling joists directly under the speakers. 8' cables then go up into the sidewalls and come out baseboard slits cut for the Red Dawn. Longish (3m + 6m) interconnects join the rack-mounted pre to the monos below. This way I can walk under or store stuff under the monos, and the fact that they're in the air reduces vibration and assists cooling (Aleph 2s).
The only thing visible in the room are the silver Nordost "ribbons" flowing from the sidewalls to the Parsifals. Looks cool to me; acceptable to Ellen.
Good Luck

If you discover sound AFTER you discover She Who Must Be Obeyed, you're potentially in very deep dookey.

If you discovered sound before you met Divine Creature Of My Dreams, explain clearly, "This is who I am; this is what I do." And then never, never, never back away.