Tales from the Mid-Budget
Trenches, or It's Not Just a Project, It's a Process
Part One: Shopping Around
Last year I built a home-theater system from scratch (well,
mostly). As friends asked me for advice while shopping for their own systems, I realized
that for every nuts-and-bolts "how-to" article they’d read, they wanted to
hear an honest story from someone they knew they could trust. Here’s mine.
When my husband and I moved from our condo in
Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood to our 70-year-old, semi-rural home in Iowa, we
designated the smallish family room as our home-theater-in-waiting. It’s 12’ by
19’, and about two-thirds of the space is taken up by our couch and electronics.
Having had several years’ experience as a copy editor
(albeit as a layperson) for audiophile publications, I felt I had somewhat of a head start
over the masses. I fancied myself too smart to hand over my home-theater piggy bank to the
local big-box store. Still, there was a lot for me to learn.
I normally research big purchases past the point of
exhaustion, and this would be no different. Fortunately, I had already read hundreds of
hi-fi and home-theater-related articles over the preceding few years, and a few brand
names and concepts came to mind as I formulated my plan. At a local bookstore, I picked up
an annual buyer’s guide (Sound & Vision publishes the one I used) that
listed lots of components and their features but reviewed only a few of them. When a
certain component caught my eye -- i.e., when it matched the checklist of features I
wanted -- I searched online for an objective product review. I also looked at
manufacturers’ websites.
Divulging the numbers
Bleary-eyed from reading so much, I determined to establish
a budget and take a step forward in the process. For me, this vital decision helped me
meet two goals: to avoid overspending (duh!) and to limit my choices. That’s right --
I wanted to seriously consider as few products as possible. Why waste valuable time
auditioning equipment that’s just a pipe dream?
We weren’t sure it would be adequate, but we threw out
a hard number for the whole shebang: $5000. That figure would have to include the monitor,
amplifier, DVD player, and speakers. We already owned a DVR (a two-year-old Panasonic
ShowStopper, which uses the ReplayTV service) and, of course, a VCR.
I broke down the $5000 into a ballpark figure for each
component. I figured we could spend about $1900 (38%) on a TV, $1100 (22%) on a receiver
and DVD player, and $1150 (23%) on speakers. That would leave us with $850 (17%) for
cables and other peripherals.
Like everyone with an interest in good audio and video, I
can get caught up in the fear that I’m making the wrong decision -- and shopping last
spring, I felt as if I was on the cusp of the next major revolution in electronics. I was
sure I’d end up buying nothing but future dinosaurs. But I decided that, as long as I
wasn’t buying on impulse -- I vowed to wait at least a day before handing over the
plastic -- I needn’t worry about doubting my instincts.
Home-theater electronics aren’t quite as bad as PCs:
The stuff we bought didn’t turn out to be selling for half what we paid (at double
the clarity/memory/power) a few months later. On the other hand, I’ve been bitten by
the bug. Now that I’ve committed a small (by audiophile standards) chunk of change,
I’m constantly eyeing the next best thing. I’ve realized that I haven’t
just begun a home-improvement project; I’ll be traveling this path for years to come.
The first baby steps
I live squarely in Flyover Country, and experienced an
amused déjà vu when I read "Buying a DVD-Audio Player in
the Midwest." The audio and home-theater offerings in that writer’s town
sounded familiar: a few big-box stores, a handful of specialized dealers, and a few shops
that seem to dabble in home theater (yet focus on car stereo or cell-phone sales). I set
out to find a helpful high-end dealer, or even a midrange store.
A quick visit to a big-box store was unhelpful. Their TV
prices were comparable to everyone else’s, but the salesperson responded to every
question with a pitch for their satellite TV packages. I’m sure you’ve asked
such a person, "Do you carry Brand X?" only to hear, "You need Product
Z!" Their speaker and receiver offerings were completely inadequate. I moved on to
the local high-end dealer.
A tip for small high-end shops: If a pregnant woman (me, at
the time) comes in toting a toddler at midday in midweek (you are not busy), do not
refuse to make eye contact with her for five minutes while you chat with a lingering
customer. She wants to look at the Loewe Aconda, and is thinking she might break her
budget if it looks good enough. She has possibly earmarked more than $5000 on that Visa
card in her diaper bag for the stuff you sell. Ignore her at your peril.
Later, the same store informed me that they carry just two
speaker brands. (I was looking to audition a few different brands.) If you live in an area
where true audiophiles are scarce, you might run into such a lack of local selection.
Apparently, the people who can afford the high-end systems that keep these dealers in
business also don’t mind paying for installation and advice. That’s fine, but it
might mean that they’re buying a one-brand-fits-all system without knowing it.
I found a good fit at my next stop, the midrange Ultimate
Electronics store. There I found a salesperson who seemed to know what she was talking
about (and who told me that the entire staff receives regular trainings on new products)
and was quite willing to book audition time for me. She was also unfazed when I mentioned
that I would probably buy some components elsewhere. (Need I mention that I didn’t
seek out a female salesperson after being ignored by a man at the high-end dealer? I
wasn’t exactly scarred by that experience, just annoyed. Also, she just happened to
be the first salesperson to approach me when I walked into the store. Male salespeople at
that store always approach me -- even when I have two kids in tow. In a family town such
as ours, they know the source of their bread and butter.)
Next up: the big step of making all of the decisions, then
actually buying everything and setting it up. The first part of that would be a bit easier
than the last, as you’ll hear in the next chapter of my saga.
...Kelly Kolln
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