Home Theater
posted by DL Byron on September 29, 2003
I spent my summer vacation setting up a home theater. It was a good distraction from work because I soon learned that DVD, HDTV, a 5.1 audio system, and setting up the theater setup is not exactly consumer friendly or easy. Given that, if you spend the time and research it, you can get into a system for a reasonable budget. My system:
- Philips 30 inch, widescreen HDTV - $799.00 (Costco)
- Sony DVD - $100.00
- Pioneer Receiver - $199.00 (Costco)
- Boston Acoustics, MicroSystem 9000 II - $699.00 (Magnolia, special)
- Ikea Speaker Stands - $40.00
- Connections - $63.00
- Total = $1,900.00
Some very helpful sites:
- Liquid Theater - provides a 101, product reviews, and more.
- Dolby Home Theater Guide - an authoritative guide to totally geek out on.
- Wide Screen - an explanation of the various formats
Home theater is a hot consumer market and you'll find an assortment of "in-a-box" systems. I tried one and wouldn't recommend it all. You can find a much better deal, picture, and sound by picking better individual components.
Drinking the Hatorade
I also found much Bose hatred and misinformation on the web from audiophiles. The Bose system we tried didn't work well in our room, but it was nothing to hate and we changed to Boston Acoustics. Bose makes good small speakers. It's the speakers that are limited, not some evil Bose plan. Bose was helpful, courteous, and accepted our return with no problems.
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Comments
Aug 05 | HD TiVo said:
Here is another good website if someone needs help with their home entertainment system, especially HDTV http://www.hdtv-info.org
Aug 08 | 60pp9202 said:
Here is some more info on Philips http://www.hdtv-info.org/forum-19.html