Saturday two weeks ago was busy. I was in NL for Bianca’s birthday, a high school reunion, and… a shopping spree!
I was successful. :)
My old TV was showing its age, and I figured I deserved a nice, shiny, new, flat model. Then I dove into things and discovered LED TVs rock compared to ye olde regular LCD TVs. So I wanted one. Problem: the things were damn expensive.
I had held off on purchasing a new one, but it kept itching, so I gave in and decided to settle for a regular LCD model. Imagine my surprise when I went into the first store and found a model suited to my tastes (80cm), with LED backlighting, for a more-or-less affordable price!
I had to check this out. Went to another store, they offered a similar model for an equally similar price… Hmmms, very, very interesting. But if I was getting a TV with all sorts of modern capabilities, including HDMI, I also wanted decent sound. I had heard Gabriele’s new sound system, and it rocks compared to my meagre speakers (I was using my laptop-speakerset… not a great solution). Hence, let’s check out 2.1 sound systems… le OUCH!! That was some expensive shizzle. Nevertheless, the difference between even above-midrange laptop speakers was staggering.
By the way, why 2.1? Well, the point-one for the big bass — you need that for the sound, obviously. Why not more than two speakers, you ask? Easily answered. I don’t have much space, and a correct placement of the speakers would mean the rear speakers are floating somewhere in the room. I don’t want that clutter.
I listened to various sound systems on offer. The first two sounded indeed good. The third just bass-stunned me into an “I want that”-mode. Oh yes I wanted that fat bass sound (and I can tell you, while writing this, it makes you happy to have it :).
Hence, haggling commenced. Both the telly and the sound systems were sold out except for the store models… for the sound system, I’d say no big issue, for the telly… hmms. I think I drove a reasonably hard bargain, then they popped up with the required cables. Damn. So we haggled back and forth on those a bit, and finally I decided I didn’t need an expensive HDMI cable (it’s digital — get real, with a regular DVD player, the cable is not the limiting factor in quality. Plus, it can’t exactly lose quality — it’s digital!). For the sound I was slightly more anxious. So I got the more expensive optical audio connection. As it turns out: my bad. My very bad even. The speakers of my brand new sound system are connected via ye olde copper wiring to the amplifier (I guess Fahnestock clips. See the image — yes, it is roughly that pathetic.
Sound isn’t any less for it though :)
Le anyway, I struck a deal and got myself the equipment. By now, I have set it up and actually bought some CDs to listen to my new fat bass-sound :)
Incidentally, both the birthday party and the high school reunion were fun too :)