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In the case of the OP, I think its a valid assertion to say that she is spending her time/money/resources on med school. While Pingupenguins chooses to invest in audio gear and knowledge. He is a member of the trade after all, so his purchases are indirectly related to his current field/profession.
Plus, who knows what the future holds. While audiophilia is a hobby, many can and have made a career out of it (or in some way have monetized it to their benefit). Maybe he'll be the next Tyll years from now?
That's very interesting. If he is in the trade, that changes everything.
Anyway, I re-read the original post and I'd like to share a little how me and my gf started out.. this was 4 years ago. She was always stronger in music appreciation than I was, as she learnt classical and plays the piano, but I think her patience and curiosity was what gave it all a chance.
She was patient enough to follow me week after week to audio shops to talk, listen and borrow gear for a period of 3 years until I settled into the current system (I went through like 5 pairs of speakers in this duration). She was also patient enough to sit with me as I tried more than 30 different cables at home, and help me discern differences, and lug gear about.. To some extent, we got hooked as we heard stuff we couldn't reason why was worth that much - it started off small, like with speakers, we started off at $1k to 5k, $10k, and it became $30k - $50k range that we'd listen to, and with some exposure at the 6 digit range (though we try not to listen too much
). I'd often try items that were beyond my original budget, just to see what the hype was about, and see if it was really worth that amount. While there were some misses in high-end gear, very often you do pay for performance. Because she hears everything in the audition process, she can understand the value of my existing setup even though it is expensive.
Back at the beginning, to be honest, we weren't so sensitive to changes yet so comparing things between price ranges was more about preference.. so maybe TS can expose her to greater things like through audio shops, hifi shows, etc. Once she gets 'shocked', she may find it worthwhile to compare the minor differences.
We also spend quite abit of time attending live performances, so we can get further appreciation of what's real. Looking at the performers and reading scripts help us connect better, even though sometimes it was a hit and miss. After having a good hifi, we also realise that if the seats are not good, or if the performance venue is sub-par (even in live unamplified performances in a small audience), very often we don't get as good as sound as the CD at home, and this makes us appreciate the system more.
Now that my system is quite good, I think she has become more lazy to help out in this aspect although we still do some minor things, as I still depend on her ears to confirm I'm not hearing a placebo (like hearing differences in harddisks for instance).
Audio to me is also social - for instance both yesterday, today and tomorrow I have sessions lined up where either I am visiting other people's places to help them tune, or they are visiting me to hear/learn. She may not attend all of these sessions (esp the ones at my home) but she is always curious about other people's setups - if not to hear different equipment combinations, sometimes its the price tag that makes her go as quite a few of my friends have setups of high 5 to 6 digit ranges and some are compulsive buyers that get the latest. It helps that she is part of the group where audio is the norm.
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...and I'm not going to drop a mortgage because for that kind of money I could attend the BSO for life.
While I can understand it, the only negative aspect of this is that many people are at their best for only a few years in their career. Certain events are only once in a lifetime, like when Horowitz went back to Russia, and Van Cliburn's performance during the Cold War. In my case, I felt many good performers like Arthur Rubinstein are gone, and there is just no way to listen to their music any longer except through a system.
So while I think it's important to keep up listening to live, hifi does give something we cannot get as well.
