People talking too much

I give them vodka.

That quiets them down quite fast!

ATB from George

Why invite them round if you don't want to talk to them? Or is showing off more important?

Really? What do they talk about?

Do you spend a lot of time by yourself, M? 

My girlfriend comes round a lot can't keep her away ,but she doesn't understand being quite when the music is playing ,I turn it down to please her which is ok for so long ,but you get that sonic track you have to turn it up. And duck tape !

If you show her this thread, maybe she won't trouble you any more. 

1) The comma comes BEFORE the space

2) It is "quiet"

3) It is "duct tape"

(Sorry, couldn't help being a dick)

Not necessarily ……..

My approach is simple.......

When people come to my home and talk over the top of lovely music being played on my hi-fi, I take them out the back and shoot them.

Quite often I give people who light up a fag the same treatment.......

I'm a great believer in "permanent" solutions to annoying problems. 

Engelbert 

'Kindly advice: Do not play your hi-fi to your friends: listening to music is a private matter and your friend's opinions should be of no interest and weight. Would you invite your friends to observe and comment on your love making? And even if you did (!) can you imagine any good resulting from their observations and comments? Of course not.'

(A.S., Audio designer and owner of a renown British loudspeaker company, on their forum.

Followed ever since.)

The problem is, most people just do not sit down to listen to music in the way most of us poor sad Hi-Fi types do. They either plumb themselves into an iPod or have it playing in the background. I no longer bother to turn my system up to normal levels when we've company round unless someone's specifically asked to listen. If they then start jabbering over the music I'll stop it and ask them if they want to talk or listen to the music (in a nice, but nevertheless slightly menacing manner).

To be fair, when a group of us who are similarly afflicted gather for a hi-fi "event" we do tend to talk more than listen to music, but then that's only natural. (Methinks it's time for another gathering...)

One more rule:

I think that sums it up pretty well.

Engelbert

It also depends on the purpose of the visit. The wishes of my guests overrides any desire on my part to show off the system. Most usually go 'wow' and then get back to talking about other things. I just have the music on in the background. When 'HiFi' friends visit we tend to chat between tracks or when   changing a record. I love sharing my passion but only with likeminded people. 'Normal' guests are invited for a good time not a lesson in HiFi.

@ Tony - I agree. Let's get together again soon.

When we have friends around, the system is either off or very low for background. Most who haven't already seen the system do ask a few question about what all the black boxes do. I quickly explain (almost sheepishly TBH), then quickly change the subject to something else as i feel very nerdy at this point - haha!

Inviting folks over and expecting them to be quiet is just plain weird. Rude even. 

More annoying to me, by far, is when you sit through a great film or TV episode and you come to the most important scene - the most profound element - the great denoument and SWMBO gets up and announces she will make a cup of coffee, call a friend or go for a pee and you realise that she has not understood any of it. 

People who come round my house to moan about smokers get the same treatment. In fact, lighting up a gasper is compulsory round our gaff.

+1.

I know. Perhaps some of these posters would be happier to just live like hemits, drooling over their precious hi-fi and avoiding all human contact.

Snap! Thanks, I appreciate it.

Fair enough . That's a clever branding using the almost universal malapropism to create some humour. The use of "duck" in this context it so widespread, the original name has become almost completely forgotten.

Well yeah. Forgotten by me (if I ever knew it). Apparently Duck Tape is actually the original nomenclature. Well who knew? Internet justice has struck me down (again). Apologies for being a dick (again).

Dear Kevin,

Excellent!

I get round this one by asking if people mind if I light up!

Nobody has ever told me not to in my own house!

ATB from George

it would be great if when bought a record or CD it had on a sign saying to get the best out of this recording,please don,t talk all the way through it .so i can show people it, when they sit down and point to the duck tape!

I have the opposite experience. My wife will be watching The View, Oprah, Ellen, Dr Phil or some other entertainment-tonight-type rubbish. If I interrupt her viewing by actually talking, she sighs and pauses the PVR so that she doesn't miss a second of the banal, idiotic, unironic and unfunny commentary by unqualified "celebrities" on irrelevant issues. I guess I just don't understand what is so fascinating about "women's" television.

Now shows about building choppers, restoring hot-rods, blowing stuff up in the name of pop-science or Vegas pawn shops - that's real television.