In the name of AVrant

[avaserfi]

I was bored and decided to mimic the AVrant Circuit City episode by killing some time at Best Buy and seeing their recommendations. Just as a note I live in a smaller town 50k people in session and 25k out of session right now school is out. The Best Buy is exceptionally low end compared to larger cities.

So I walk in and head straight to the HTiB section as separates are in a different area. I waited until a sales person started to help me and I was in luck his badge said "Home theater specialist" on it. He asked what I was interested in and I told him I wanted a surround system and had done some research saying I just needed a receiver and speakers as I had a good dvd player. The first thing he asked was my budget and I looked at the closest HTiB price tag and said I could do better than that if I will get a good difference. He then explained that HTiB aren't that good and he would recommend separates and said to follow him so I could get my mind blown I held back laughter. On the way to the seperates I ask if any HTiB was worth my time and he said he could only recommend one the Denon DHT-487DV but didn't even bother to stop and show it to me he just pointed. He takes me to their "show room" which is an isle set up with surround from a variety of speakers. He asks my room dimensions as we are standing infront of some Klipsch speakers I told him my room was a mixed living room and dining room in an apartment that measured 14x20 and he then showed me the Klipsch Synergy speakers and then said they were great but pretty expensive so he took me to demo the Klipsch Quintet III and started pushing those on me saying how they got low enough to where I wouldn't need a sub but that it would be a nice addition. After that I asked about a receiver and he said as long as it was at least 5.1 I was good and he never mentioned speaker wire when I asked about what else I would need although he did tell me proper placement of the surrounds was not behind the listening area but to the sides.

He also told me a majority of the movies dialog will either come out of the center or the surrounds and that the fronts were not as important as the surrounds. He never said a center was to give more bass although he was trying to get me to buy a Sony center with Klipsch because it was 100 bucks cheaper.

Thats what happens when I get bored .

 

[Tom Andry]

Here's a couple of links for those that haven't heard these podcasts yet -

Dina reporting about her trip to CC

A bit more discussion about the trip

I'm hoping that she'll make her way to BB soon. This is quite the startling revelation, however, that it appears that CC employees think the fronts are just there for show. I wonder what's up with that?

 

[avaserfi]

Its because when you spend so much money on speakers the only "new" sound is coming from the back so it must be that those do all the work! But when you spend that much you need to be reminded of how awesome you are for getting such kick *** speakers so you get the fronts as a reminder! Thats how it works, isn't it?

 

[Haoleb]

im planning on doing this on both best buy and CC here in a couple days with a buddy of mine whos also into audio. Just for kicks

 

[avaserfi]

It was a pretty interesting experience and explained a lot to me about why people end up with the systems they do. I recently had a friend who was going to be upgrading from his HTiB and had a pretty good chunk of change to do it. I brought him over and let him listen to my stuff and he liked it. I explained what I would do with the budget and why with specific speaker and receiver examples. In the end he went to a big box store and spent 400 on another HTiB that actually sounds worse than his old one, BUT it looks cooler so its all good.

 

[highfihoney]

I dont know whats worse,dealing with the idiot sales specialists at the big box stores or a salesman at a hifi shop,who talks utter jibberish & is wearing tight slacks & a pink polo shirt,with the collar turned up

 

[avaserfi]

I dont know whats worse,dealing with the idiot sales specialists at the big box stores or a salesman at a hifi shop,who talks utter jibberish & is wearing tight slacks & a pink polo shirt,with the collar turned up

But his pink polo is the perfect color to absorb all negative soundwaves and his collar acts as a bass trap. Don't underestimate your local snakeoil shop .

 

[Audioholics]

OK, but if y'all do this you NEED to call the AVRant hotline (978-OFF-RANT) and leave a message of your experience - and post on the blogs: www.avrant.com

 

[avaserfi]

I did call AVRant hotline with some other info after listening to a show, Ill copy this experience over there. Its a great show and should be Bi-Weekly just because I am running out of shows!