Tales from the Mid-Budget
Trenches, or It's Not Just a Project, It's a Process
Part Two: Choosing and Buying
Last time,
I described the way I laid the groundwork for my first home-theater system. After
searching my small city (in a mainly rural Midwestern state) for home-theater outlets, I
decided on a midrange store with on-site service. The final decisions weren’t that
difficult once I narrowed my criteria and settled upon a budget for each component. But I
still slept on it before heading in to make (almost) all of my purchases.
By the end of this installment, I’m sure you’ll
be thinking, "You built your system backward! Who chooses the speakers last?"
Well, at least I know one thing: Mine is an experience typical of many home-theater
buyers, whether or not they admit it. Building a system like this isn’t a linear
process, but everything will work out perfectly for me. Eventually. At least until I see
what’s shiny and new at the next Consumer Electronics Show.
TV: big-screen decision
The TV selection was almost too easy. Once I narrowed down
my choices, given my $1900 budget and checklist of features, it was just a matter of
seeing some TVs in person. I found that large TVs were prohibitively expensive to ship
(much more so than other components), and too difficult to return if something were to go
wrong, so we didn’t consider buying one online. Also, buying most components in one
place would give me leverage to negotiate my price.
Our TV had to be at least 40" (my husband’s
decree), but not bigger than 50" (he had to admit that our room would not bear it).
It had to be HD-ready, but since true high-definition programming is still so limited, we
didn’t want to pay for a built-in tuner. We were a breath away from seriously
considering LCD or DLP monitors, but the prices dictated our choice. It’s easy to
rationalize that a $3000 TV is just as extravagant as a $2000 one, but that’s why we
established a budget in the first place -- to avoid that kind of thinking and
overspending. Plus, we were afraid of cheapo plasma screens.
When you’re checking out TVs at the store, be sure
that the salesperson hooks up everything to resemble your home system as closely as
possible. See how regular cable looks, if that’s what you’ll be watching a lot
at home, and request that they set up a progressive-scan DVD player (with the
component-video cable, please).
Our winner was the 48" rear-projection Mitsubishi
WS-48311. Now, if my cable company would just offer a box with built-in high-definition
TiVo (and an HD tuner, of course).
SoundStage!
Network editors’ tip: When choosing a large-screen TV, remember that reviews can
be limited. Simply put, the manufacturers just can’t send out two-ton TVs to be
reviewed the way they can ship relatively smaller speakers. So read with caution, and
beware of non-professional reviewers. Negative ones may convey buyer’s remorse;
positive ones often sound something like, "Woo hoo, football never looked so huge in
my house!"
Receiver: one to grow into
This component was the most difficult for me to research,
since I wasn’t quite sure what features I truly needed. So I made a simple list of
the needs I could identify: THX and seven-channel sound weren’t necessary, but inputs
for a digital cable box, a ReplayTV box, a DVD player, and a VCR were. Literally looking
at the back panels of a few models in my price range at the manufacturers’ websites
helped a great deal. Also, I determined that two-channel sound isn’t my top priority;
home theater definitely is.
My SoundStage! Network colleagues recommended that I check
out receivers from Arcam, Denon, and Outlaw Audio.
I decided that my budget fit well with the Denon AVR-3803.
(I could spend $1100 total on the receiver and the DVD player.) Here’s where I also
found a way to cut myself a discount. Once I selected everything, then armed myself with
some information, I went back to make my purchases, ready for battle.
It was not that tough. I put on my "nice voice"
and said, "I really want to buy everything in one place, from you guys, but I found
the receiver online for a better price. Can you match it?"
Thanks to a certain electronics dealership in the New York
metro area with a really annoying spokesman and insanely low prices, I was able to knock
several hundred dollars off the total price. My salesperson was obviously authorized to
give me that discount from the beginning -- I just had to ask. (The discount was around
10% of the total cost of the TV, DVD player, and receiver.)
SoundStage! Network editors’ tip: You can’t have
too many inputs and outputs. Buy a receiver to handle more components than you can imagine
yourself owning now. (I’ve already tested this theory, since we just bought a second
DVD player to play European discs, something I wouldn’t have imagined just months
ago.)
DVD player: movies trump music
Here’s the part where I betray my weakness as an
armchair audiophile. I must admit, I never just sit there and listen to music. Maybe
it’s because of my inability to relax, or maybe it’s linked to having small
children, because don’t get me wrong, I love music. I was a DJ in college
(everyone out there, raise your hand; I suspect I’m not alone), yet music is mainly
in my day-to-day background, not center stage.
Equipment-wise, this meant I just had to get a decent DVD
player to use as a CD player as well. I searched for the legendary Panasonic RP82, but it
was already impossible to find. So I decided to go the easy way, and buy the same brand as
my receiver (Denon), knowing that the remotes would work well together. (This bit of
advice came from Marc Mickelson, SoundStage! Network editor-in-chief.) My basic
requirement was easily met: component-video output.
At the last minute I decided to spring for the version with
a five-disc changer, and have somewhat regretted the decision. It doesn’t allow me to
indulge my couch-potato self completely, since it doesn’t list all five titles in its
onscreen display. But it does store our half-watched movies (and over-watched kids titles)
pretty well.
The player sports outstanding picture quality, with
reference discs like Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones dazzling
everyone we show it to. It also revealed cruelly that a copy of Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Dragon that we’d purchased on eBay must be pirated (so bit-mappy, it hurts).
Accessories: over budgeted?
Should I have been offended? My SoundStage! Network editors
told me that I didn’t really need any expensive cable, or even a pricey power
conditioner. Was the equipment I was buying with my life savings that crappy?
Well, at a certain level, the cable that comes with the
speakers might be just fine. I also decided on a Monster Power surge protector for well
under $100, because I could lump it in with all of my other purchases. Ditto for some
other Monster Cable products, like a digital coaxial audio cable, and the component-video
cable.
I also bought some Monster Cable by the foot for my rear
surrounds, eating up some of my $850 accessories budget. Which brings me to the point at
which I admit that my home-theater journey has not yet ended.
Speakers: a system-in-progress
OK, at this point you are going to seriously question my
qualifications for writing this article. However, I never claimed that I was giving advice
-- just sharing my experience with you, warts and all.
My speaker situation is still, shall we say, unresolved. I
blame a paucity of local audition venues.
However, I have managed to cobble together a makeshift
speaker system. For the left and right channels, I’m using some Infinity speakers (RS
Series), circa 1989. They’re definitely holding their own. For the surrounds and
subwoofers, I’m using Gallo Nucleus Micros, circa 1999. They’re a great little
system on their own, but would, of course, work much better in a five-channel system if I
had more than two of the satellites.
For the center-channel . . . I’d rather not say. Well,
OK, it’s a gigantic Panasonic "Turbo Thruster," circa 1985, courtesy of my
husband’s high-school-era system. It can sound both muddy and crispy (to throw out
some audiophile lingo -- or did I pick that up at a wine tasting?), but it’s actually
a serviceable placeholder.
How’s this for a cliffhanger: I hope to have a shiny,
new set of speakers in place by the time you read Part Three of this series, in which my
brother-in-law gets more than he bargained for when he offers to set up the whole shebang.
...Kelly Kolln
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