Its not always like that...
I have a family friend who is regularly wowed by my HT and sometimes call on me to troubleshoot.
Unbeknownst to me, he decided to put together a home theater system for himself. Further unbeknownst to me he went to BB and bought a Samsung LCD TV, DVD Player, Pioneer Receiver, Bose Bookshelf Speakers, Monster Cable, etc.
So you can understand my surprize and shock when I walk into his living room one day to find this mish-mash setup (running stereo RCA from DVD to TV to Receiver, etc), him beaming and saying he got a great deal for $1500.
Needless to say, I had no comments except, "Yeah, great deal".
After I got over the shock, I have started helping him get the best out of the gear. Placement tips, signal routing, etc.