Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Home Theater...

It's now time for Audioholics' readers to give something back. We want to know about YOUR stories regarding home theater. Got a tale about your friend who is simply in love with his 2" cube speaker system that cost $3400? How about an interesting adventure at a mass-market consumer electronics store? Maybe your grandparents recently figured out how to use that $600 VCR you bought them in 1978? We'd love to hear your stories, both humorous, those with happy endings, and even the ridiculous - and we'll compile some of them into an article for later publication. So now's your chance - spill it and don't hold anything back!

Monster Component Cable

My buddy buys a beautiful Sony 42" LCD projection TV. So I invite him to purchase my 2003 Panasonic SA-HE 100 receiver and Energy Take 5 + 1 system so he has some decent sound to go with his new display. All he needs now is a component video cabe from his DVD player to his TV.

Unbeknownst to me, off to Future Shop he goes and is gently persueded by the unbiased sales staff into a Monster Component Video cable. I go over to calibrate his TV, hook up his system and bring with me a nice, RCA brand component video cable from Home Depot. He proudly shows off his new Monster cable when I arrive. After back to back comparisons, I'm forced to say that yes, indeed, I can see a differerce in picure quality.

Walmart DVD player: $59
Monster Component Video Cable: $169
Look on wife's face after learning this: Priceless!

I got out before the screaming began. Another satisfied Monster sucker...I mean customer.

I don't have a clever story, just the sad feeling because everytime I go to someone's house they always have a 5.1 system and never have it set-up correctly: The surround speakers are on top of the tv, the center channel is on the floor facing straight up, the front left speaker is in the correct spot, but the front right speaker is facing the back of the TV. I guess none of this matters because the DVD player is hooked-up to the TV speaker (because the TV is still set to Mono from the factory). And they're watching a full-screen pan&scan movie stretched to fit their widescreen TV that they can't be bothered to adjust the contrast on.

Went to Best Buy a few weeks ago with my brother who was looking to get a new surround sound system. I tried to talk him out of Best Buy, but we've shopped there for years anyways, he's looking at the Bose system for about 20 min, and a salesman comes up. I'm 21, he had to be about 16 and starts rambling about how this is the best set up they have to offer and money can buy. It was like 3 grand and it didnt sound much better than a 300 dollar sony htib that I had. I walk both of them over to the Klipsch section and turn it on, I think that system was about half the price all together, needless to say, the salesman says, If you have any more questions I'll be around, and he walked off, my brother went with the Klipsch system and couldnt be happier. Best Buy, when will you learn, the most expensive doesn't make it the best..

I have a sad story, but before I go any further I just want to note that I am expecting the taunting from Mr. Nomas to begin approx 30 seconds after he finishes this post. You are my Newman, Nomas. (no you don't get to be Jerry)

About 3 yrs. ago there was a young naive shopper just dying to make his first speaker purchase. Let's just call this person Mr. Easy. Mr. Easy had about $600 burning a hole in his pocket and went to his local chain store. At the time there was only the one big chain store within a reasonable distance, and since it was a scientific fact that chain stores carry only the biggest brand names and sell them to consumers at only the best prices, Mr. Easy felt safe in ignoring any local "boutique" shops that sold brands he'd never heard of. After all everyone said Bose was the best and the little shops by his house didn't even carry the entry level $1000 system. Boy were they suckers. So back to the chain store and what does Mr. Easy find? Why they are clearing out an amazing speaker set by one of the finest names in music, JBL! What a happy day. On sale for $499.00 too, better act before it gone Mr. Easy! Oh what a day, the sun is shining, the wind is in your hair, and now you get the audio bargain of the decade, truly someone upstairs loves you! Better buy them without doing any research. Never mind the rude salesman who said that he didn't have time to set the speakers up for a demo. Hurry up and give them the money before someone realizes they marked the price on the box wrong and get it to your car.

Mr. Easy proceeded to take the speakers home and set them up using the 7 yr. old pioneer prologic receiver he had been gifted by a friend. He turned everything on and to his surprise was greeted with a large POP!. It took a little figuring but it turned out that 2 of the speakers were blown before they got out of the box, and this was causing the receiver to go into protection mode. Mr. easy returned them and received 2 more speakers promptly, with barely any dirty looks and only the slightest insinuation that it was something he had done to destroy these nearly bullet-proof speakers. Now that he was sure he had a fully functioning HT Mr. Easy set everything up, put in his favourite DVD, and sat back only to find: the music only sounded a little better, due mainly to the fact that Mr. Easy now had the use of a sub woofer. This improvement did fuel a need for further betterments though. So 6 months later Mr. Easy returned to the same store to purchase better fronts for his speaker set. He wanted a good deal, and he figures what the hey, let's see what the next step up from the current speakers can do. After all you can't go wrong with JBL, they do the sound systems for 75% of movie theatres! That's an impressive fact. This time though Mr. Easy is backed by internet research stating that the JBL N24II are great speakers for a good price. Rock on Mr. Easy, lets make a purchase. At the store Mr Easy finds that if he buys the N24II's at full price he is entitled to a free sub!!!! Oh joy of joys. Did the air just start tasting sweeter? Without hesitation out comes the wallet and out of it comes $255. A pittance really. Boy, these guys that run these chain stores must really be idiots to sell their products so cheaply, and to give a free sub away with it? Suckers!

Again we get to the point where our protagonist gets home to set up his speakers only to find that there is little if no improvement in sound. How can this be? All of a sudden it dawns on Mr. Easy that he is using digital speakers with a prologic receiver. What a fool he's been. Mr. Easy starts looking for a receiver. This is one purchase he must research in order to make sure his new purchase will be able to do his JBL's justice. About this time Mr. Easy's beautiful, smart, sexy, intelligent, good smelling, beautiful, well meaning girlfriend decides to purchase for him an incredible Sony receiver for Christmas. Somehow there still seems to be something missing from music and movies, especially from center channel dialogue. Mr. Easy knows there must be an easy fix now that he has the two best brands in the world at his finger tips. He goes online and googles his query. In doing so he stumbles across a site called Audioholics full of know it alls and meanies, and so begins a downward spiral into sleazy no name cables, snobby brand speakers, and trashy American receivers that really like to put out. The rest is history.

My first time...

A true story about how it all began for me.

Living in Miami, FL before the days of Best Buy and Circuit City left one with one place to go for HiFi and A/V: Sound Advice. While they are a but a shell of their former selves, back then they were it.

The Coral Gables store had some very special rooms with some very special equipment. I remember the first time I saw the Infinity IRS V system. Simply unbelievable! It was like you were stepping into a church or something. The room was almost totally black except for the glow eminating from the various pieces of equipment. And against the wall stood those beatiful wooden monoliths. I can also remember the first time I put on a pair of Stax headphones. I was never really a classical music fan, but listening to chamber music through those headphones was a revelation for me. I had no idea that you could actually hear the breathing of a flutist on a recording. Those headphones to my young and uninitiated ears were scary. A year later I did end up buying a pair. The Stax that is

One day while browsing the store ( I used to do that a lot). A salesman let me listen to a very special pair of speakers. Not just because they were good...they were, but because they were actually affordable. It was the first time I actually heard a speaker image. With the lights down I felt like the performers were in the room with me. The track: Gold Dust Woman from Fleetwood Mac, the speakers: Apogee Acoustics Centaur Minor Ribbon Hybrid Loudspeakers. I didn't buy them that day, but it wasn't soon after that I did. After bringing them home, it was then that I learned about ohms, watts, and just how power hungry speakers can be. My poor Yamaha receiver. I had to have the volume knob way past 12 o'clock to get any respectable SPL out of them, but what did come out was pretty awesome.

Anyway...

Years have passed and many speakers have come and gone (the Apogees included ), but the Apogees and the Stax headphones will always hold a special place in my memory as being the starting point of a lifetime of musical enjoyment.

-Tony

Sorry to say, but I don't really have any HT stories I'm willing to tell. I'm sure everything that has happened to me has happened to everyone in this hobby at some point.

Having said that...

I stumbled across this page a short time ago:
http://users.net1plus.com/scottm/room.htm

Someone might want to email him and see if you can use his story. It's pretty funny.

Enjoy,
Panther

Poor bastard. Should have taken up restoring old Corvettes. Only slightly cheaper.......

I read the story, I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants!

This hobby really is a disease!

b_panther_g said:

Sorry to say, but I don't really have any HT stories I'm willing to tell. I'm sure everything that has happened to me has happened to everyone in this hobby at some point.

Having said that...

I stumbled across this page a short time ago:
http://users.net1plus.com/scottm/room.htm

Someone might want to email him and see if you can use his story. It's pretty funny.

Enjoy,
Panther

Click to expand...

Takeereasy said:

I have a sad story, but before I go any further I just want to note that I am expecting the taunting from Mr. Nomas to begin approx 30 seconds after he finishes this post. You are my Newman, Nomas. (no you don't get to be Jerry)

About 3 yrs. ago there was a young naive shopper just dying to make his first speaker purchase. Let's just call this person Mr. Easy. Mr. Easy had about $600 burning a hole in his pocket and went to his local chain store. At the time there was only the one big chain store within a reasonable distance, and since it was a scientific fact that chain stores carry only the biggest brand names and sell them to consumers at only the best prices, Mr. Easy felt safe in ignoring any local "boutique" shops that sold brands he'd never heard of. After all everyone said Bose was the best and the little shops by his house didn't even carry the entry level $1000 system. Boy were they suckers. So back to the chain store and what does Mr. Easy find? Why they are clearing out an amazing speaker set by one of the finest names in music, JBL! What a happy day. On sale for $499.00 too, better act before it gone Mr. Easy! Oh what a day, the sun is shining, the wind is in your hair, and now you get the audio bargain of the decade, truly someone upstairs loves you! Better buy them without doing any research. Never mind the rude salesman who said that he didn't have time to set the speakers up for a demo. Hurry up and give them the money before someone realizes they marked the price on the box wrong and get it to your car.

Mr. Easy proceeded to take the speakers home and set them up using the 7 yr. old pioneer prologic receiver he had been gifted by a friend. He turned everything on and to his surprise was greeted with a large POP!. It took a little figuring but it turned out that 2 of the speakers were blown before they got out of the box, and this was causing the receiver to go into protection mode. Mr. easy returned them and received 2 more speakers promptly, with barely any dirty looks and only the slightest insinuation that it was something he had done to destroy these nearly bullet-proof speakers. Now that he was sure he had a fully functioning HT Mr. Easy set everything up, put in his favourite DVD, and sat back only to find: the music only sounded a little better, due mainly to the fact that Mr. Easy now had the use of a sub woofer. This improvement did fuel a need for further betterments though. So 6 months later Mr. Easy returned to the same store to purchase better fronts for his speaker set. He wanted a good deal, and he figures what the hey, let's see what the next step up from the current speakers can do. After all you can't go wrong with JBL, they do the sound systems for 75% of movie theatres! That's an impressive fact. This time though Mr. Easy is backed by internet research stating that the JBL N24II are great speakers for a good price. Rock on Mr. Easy, lets make a purchase. At the store Mr Easy finds that if he buys the N24II's at full price he is entitled to a free sub!!!! Oh joy of joys. Did the air just start tasting sweeter? Without hesitation out comes the wallet and out of it comes $255. A pittance really. Boy, these guys that run these chain stores must really be idiots to sell their products so cheaply, and to give a free sub away with it? Suckers!

Again we get to the point where our protagonist gets home to set up his speakers only to find that there is little if no improvement in sound. How can this be? All of a sudden it dawns on Mr. Easy that he is using digital speakers with a prologic receiver. What a fool he's been. Mr. Easy starts looking for a receiver. This is one purchase he must research in order to make sure his new purchase will be able to do his JBL's justice. About this time Mr. Easy's beautiful, smart, sexy, intelligent, good smelling, beautiful, well meaning girlfriend decides to purchase for him an incredible Sony receiver for Christmas. Somehow there still seems to be something missing from music and movies, especially from center channel dialogue. Mr. Easy knows there must be an easy fix now that he has the two best brands in the world at his finger tips. He goes online and googles his query. In doing so he stumbles across a site called Audioholics full of know it alls and meanies, and so begins a downward spiral into sleazy no name cables, snobby brand speakers, and trashy American receivers that really like to put out. The rest is history.

Click to expand...

Then Mr. Easy bought himself a nice Marantz on Ubid but had some problems with customs.....

HookedOnSound said:

I read the story, I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants!

This hobby really is a disease!

Click to expand...

Yeah.

The whole thing really makes me laugh. But for me, the part about the electrician is so funny it hurts.

You're right. At some point this hobby becomes a disease.

Enjoy,
Panther

Then Mr. Easy bought himself a nice Marantz on Ubid but had some problems with customs.

Click to expand...

I'm in talks with Miramax about licensing this epic saga. "One man's search for Truth, Justice, and a sound system that doesn't blow." I'm hoping to attract Angelina Jolie to co-star as the GF and wreck my homelife. Oh that would be so worth it.

I am expecting the taunting from Mr. Nomas to begin approx 30 seconds after he finishes this post

Click to expand...

Come on now, I'm not that bad. And I don't consider it "taunting" it's more like good natured ribbing. Plus, you've taken enough slack from me that I you ever come to the great metropolis that is Jacksonville, you can count on me to let you camp in my backyard! Watch out for the mosquitoes though, they've been known to carry off small children.

That said.....

I had a girlfriend once that REALLY wanted to marry me....well, she really wanted to be married and I was the most likely victim....er...candidate. Near my birthday, I had blown one of my rear speakers (I think it was damaged when it was given to me and the tear in the woofer just got unbearable) and even though I told her not to get me anything (we had just started dating and really didn't feel expensive presents were in order), she ran to the nearest big box store and bought, on recommendation of the extremely knowledgeable staff, some BOSE 201's.


I didn't marry her.


But I did lie to her and tell her that I grits teeth loved them.


The morals of the story:

1) Buying BlOSE, even if it was well intentioned and misinformed, is a HUGE red flag in any relationship.
2) Never, EVER, take the advice of any one person - especially if that person is a salesman - or has more piercings than sense.
3) Presents are to be loved and enjoyed - regardless of how much they suck.
4) No matter how bad a speaker is, it is better than no speaker - and later you can take it out back and burn it.
5) Much like eyeglasses, shoes, and all women’s clothing – buying the wrong size/shape/flavor audio equipment is a non-stop trip to the doghouse.
6) There is no female doghouse – it is the last male only location on the fricken planet.
7) Anyone that says they can/have put their female into a “doghouse” is either a liar or is going to end up on one of the more embarrassing episodes of the Jerry Springer show.
8) When you get to the doghouse – look up Takeereasy, he has a booth at the back. Sponsored by Sony…and Canadian Customs….and me.

LOL, I do take it as good natured ribbing, makes me laugh every time. My doghouse has a pool and sauna, had to make it more comfortable since that's where I seem to spend a lot of my time. For me a marriage obsessed GF is one of the most terrifying prospects possible. I need a nice slow gradual dating period of 20 yrs or so, just to make sure I get to know the person. Then a protracted engagement.

Why should there be a female doghouse? I've never known a woman to be wrong yet. Just ask any woman you know. It's either your fault, the dog's fault, it's the weather, it's the timing et al. Most likely your fault.

Every Damn Time

The stars of my saga are my parents, bless their hearts.

Every time they wanted to do something different with their stereo or TV, they (wisely) came to me for advice, which I gladly gave.

1988: "Our VCR..." (with channels you actually had to set with tiny thumb-wheels) "...isn't working very well and we think it's time to get a new one." Really... OK, then. Get a stereo VHS Hi-Fi model. Here's this nice Mitsu. "We don't care about stereo and don't want to spend the extra $100. We'll just get this mono one. It'll be all we need."

1991: "How can we hook up that new VCR to the stereo? We have all these stereo movies, and the TV and stereo are in the same room. Can you hook that up for us?" Well, sure, Parents. I can do that, but you see, way back in 1988 I told you to get a stereo VCR just in case... But now we'll have to get RCA Y-adapters, and it won't actually be stereo, or even the Hi-Fi tracks, but the linear tracks summed to mono will certainly be louder!

1996: Parents, here's this TV as a Christmas gift to replace the one in your office that's dying a slow painful death. But see, we couldn't afford the one we thought you should really get, one with A/V inputs and outputs in case you might want to hook up a VCR or cable box someday. So think of this as a big gift certificate. Return it and spend the extra $100 for the better one. "Oh, no. This one with nothing but one lonely RF terminal on the back will be just fine. We'll never want to do anything but plug in the Cable TV line and use the built-in tuner."

2001: "Hey Son, we got this used big-screen TV and we want you to help us hook it up." Sure thing. Thanks for not even asking for my advice to ignore. What's this? S-Video input? Hey... That's great.

2002: Parents, here's this nice Sony prog-scan DVD player as a Christmas gift. It's the same one I have, so if you have any questions about it, I won't have to haul my butt all the way out here to help you turn it on, or eject a disc. It's really nice and you'll enjoy it for years to come, especially when I help you pick out the TV you should really have, like a 16:9 HD set. "Thanks, Son. We'll let you know when we want to upgrade."

2004: "We decided it was time to upgrade and we got a really good deal on this Zenith TV. It does HD! Can you help us set it up." Sure, Parents! I'll be right out. Hey would you look at that 4:3 tube! That's neat. Well, at least it does 1080i and has 480p component input, so you can get the most out of that DVD player.

2005: "We're having trouble hooking up our new VCR/DVD player combo. Can you come out and help us? We thought it would be easier to have it all in one box instead of separate." Oh? Well I guess you finally dropped the pretense of even asking for my advice to ignore.

2005: "Can you help us hook up the DVD player you gave us for Christmas a while back to the TV you gave us for Christmas a while back?" Ummm... You mean the one you were supposed to trade up to a better model? Actually, no. I can't.

If the thread is ever started, I have one about a guy I help with his computers that reads pretty much the same.

HT related venting...

While this is not directly HT hardware related I thought I would share my ongoing experience and do a little venting at the same time...

I am in the final stages of developing my basement, about 1300 square feet, including a nice ( in theory ) home media centre. This is a project that I have been working on for about 3 years now and the end is ( was ) in sight! I have done all the work myself, plenty of sweat and more than a little skin & blood to boot.

Now for the fun part, custom built in cabinets! Not being a cabinet maker my wife & I decided to have this finishing touch designed, build & installed by a very large & reputable cabinet company. No problem so far, they spent lots of time working with us on the design and measurements. The main wall unit is 8 feet high and 13 feet across, plus a separate bar unit. All seemed well and the order was placed at the end of May.

Delivery was to be about 6 weeks later, much to my dismay this happened to work out to be about 3 days after we left for a month long family vacation in Europe. Oh well, now I had something to look forward to after coming home. Cabinets & equipment install done by the middle of next week!

The cabinets arrived two days ago ( Tuesday ). Yippy! Now we're cooking!

Assembly started yesterday morning, way cool! Lunch time arrives, going well...late in the afternoon, after their office has closed for the day of course, hmmm...Houston we have a problem!

It would appear that quality control is not a major strength of the folks at the manufacturing shop. Low and behold several of the base cabinets are an inch wider than specified. "No problem" says the installer! "I'll just use my handy jig saw to cut the cabinets and doors down to fit!"

Whoa there shaggy I says! ( lead installer looks like and old hill billy / geriatric biker, but actually a nice enough fellow )

We need to check out what else may be wrong at this point, start unpacking & unpacking & unpacking all the crates. Wow, now it seems that the 2 end units are not the same height. Stain colour is not consistant across all the pieces plus a few more other "out of spec" items. Things are now getting out of control...shaggy still insists he can fix it up fine with his jig saw... I don't think so! Full stop! Suggest that again and it'll be "get the hell out of my office" time.

I leave a voice mail with the designer to call me ASAP this morning. My dreams, this close to completion, are starting to take on a nightmare hue...

I have to add something else in the interest of being fair. The cabinets themselves are beautiful & extremely well made, the finish is impeccable. The craftsmen who build them know their wood, I believe the problem lies somewhere between the designer & the shop floor...

Now I'm waiting for the call back...hopefully things, along with my attitude, will start to improve after the call but that will be the next installment...

Sigh....if I didn't have bad luck I'd have no luck at all...

RJB,

That's a shame, hopefully they will get everything fixed soon and you can start enjoying the area

This thread has exceeded my expectations... I want to integrate some of this together into a fun Editorial article (I'll contact anyone whose stories I plan to borrow from or use so I can give you credit). I'll probably get started on it after we settle back in from CEDIA.

It all started when about 13 years ago when my dad gave me his mid/late 70's vintage Pioneer receiver and bought me a pair of Yamaha bookshelf speakers for my birthday. A couple months later he purchased a Pioneer Pro-Logic receiver and and nice set of Cambridge Soundworks speakers for himself.
A couple months go by and I convince him to let me have his mid/late 70's Pioneer stere amplifier(big silver unit with 2 db meters in the middle...purchased in England so I had to use a 220 to 110volt transformer with it).

15 years old...I start experimenting. Hmmm...those 12" subs in the ported box I bought for the car I'll be driving soon might sound good in my bedroom!

16 years old. I had to put the 12's back in the car. Time to drive to Best Buy and buy another pair of speakers for my bedroom. Hey...a pair of open box buy Sony's for $88 a pair. 3-way design with 8" woofers in an acoustic suspension type enclosure with nearly the exact same specs as the Yamahas.

22 years old. I move into an apartment with my girlfriend and get tired of listening to dvd movies throught her circa 1992 Panasonic TV. Time to upgrade. Best Buy has the Pioneer VSX-D711 5.1 receiver on sale and you get a free subwoofer with purchase. I'm all about killing 2 birds with one stone. Another $50 and I have a KLH center channel. Get home and hook it all up using my girlfriends hand-me-down 80's Technics floor standers(big 'ol 3-ways with 12" woofers) as the front channels, KLH as the center, Sony's as the surrounds and the free Sony subwoofer as the LFE channel. I'm hooked! It's amazing...I invite my whole family over to see what this home theater stuff is about.

23 years old. I move across town to be closer to my job/parents/places I actually know. I find out Pioneer's got this thing called MCACC, some kind of mic-assisted set-up for your home theater, the only problem is my receiver doesn't have it. Gradually, I convince my girlfriend that MCACC will make our home theater that much better(she doesn't really buy it, but the new receiver is also 7.1 and I have the Yamaha's that I left at my parent's house to fill in the surround back channels). Enter the Pioneer VSX-D912. The girlfriend surprises me and buys it for me as an early b-day gift. What a woman!
As I'm listening to some cd's one day in good old 2 channel stereo mode I realize something doesn't sound right. I get up real close to the Technics and lo and behold, the left one's midrange isn't working and the right one's midrange and woofer aren't working. When did this happen? They sounded great before!
Oh well, time to upgrade . Polk R30's at Fry's Electronics for $100 a pair ? I just saw them at Circuit City for $399 a pair! Swipe goes the credit card and the Technics just became speaker stand for the Sony's. I also see the updated version of the Yamaha's I had from 10 years ago for $50 a pair so I grab those too.

24 years old. Downstairs neighbor likes their bass at 2:30 in the morning! Girlfriend has to work the next day and doesn't take too kindly. The next day, SHE suggests we go shopping for a new subwoofer ! I'm finally rubbing off on her. We check out some units and settle for the Infinity PS-12 at Circuit City at nearly $100 off it's regular price. Get home, hook it up and watch Master & Commander numerous times that day. We haven't heard the neighbors bass past 10 p.m. in over a year!

25 years old. THX envy bites. Best Buy has a new Pioneer the VSX-9300TX and lo and behold it's almost exactly the same as the Elite VSX-56TXi(except no I.link). Ultimate Electronics is going out of business! They sell the 56TXi! I check twice a week and the price gets within $200 dollars of the 9300TX...then they close completely. Girlfriend doesn't want to hear about upgrading...she bought the last one for me as a gift...now she takes is personally that I want to get another one . I tell her, "it's not personal, it's THX and Prologic IIx"! I watch Bestbuy.com like a hawk for about a month and see the price of the 9300 go from $1299 to $999 to $899 to $1299 to $899...sometimes changing prices in the same day ! After a month of patience it goes down to $809 and I find a link that gets me another $50 off and it's a done deal.
Of course it's likely that the rushed deal I made with my girlfriend probably involved not buying any home theater products for the next year and a half and I probably agreed to some marriage date not too far in the future...I don't know. All I saw that month were BestBuy.com's receivers page and how many shares of my company's stock I'd have to sell to pay off this receiver before the 6 months no interest period ends!

My name is Chris Christie and I have audiophilia !