I did not visit this thread for a while because I thought its title was meant to warn all men to keep off the premises: "how do YOU (read: wives, girlfriends) cope?" Aren't men earnestly requested to leave this forum to those poor women unfortunately related to some compulsive audio freak, instead of filling it with our own stories and ruses? We all well enough know what it is like to be an audiophilic husband or boyfriend--something in the nerves, in the heart, in the brain which has more to do with the love of sound than the love of woman, child and oneself.
Women, I was waiting in eagerness for things like: The first instinctive movement of these cowardly audiophilic creatures is to make a "cache," and hide their audio treasures in it. The first thing to do is to uncover their "cache" and find out what is in it. Then you can play the trick of throwing a remark at them on some mighty issue and either hit or miss their particular weakness of the moment.
(I had an ingenious girlfriend who would make a cunning practice out of asking thinks like: "Mullard has a nice colored box, don't they?" or "What's up with Temper Transfiguration these days?" to my astonishment, between remarks about the daily news. I don't deny that I felt a pang in these seemingly casual asides, yes, a stab, but there was also an entreaty, a sigh--that was particularly effective when I had the fever to upgrade. I actually put off buying a few article with remarks like these flashing through my conscience.)
Women, please make a few revelations relating especially to your audiophilic partner, just a few things such as women commonly never tell. Men, put your wives and girlfriend on this forum and leave the room. Perhaps you women do not know if you can trust us with them. (Men: shouldn't we like to hear them? No. We would love to hear them!) In any case, my respect goes to all the good, patient wives and girfriends of audiogoners! to their soft hands and pitying voices we must all come at last--with that sad, lost look we get when things break down and we are caught without a replacement...
