[comments bottom posted]

"Gary A. Edelstein" wrote in message
...
The recent thread about Monster cable alternatives prompted me to post
this.

I was helping my father and stepmother with a home theater purchase at
a Milwaukee, WI high end shop this last weekend. Here's what they
picked out for a fairly small (~13'x13') den:

Sony 37" Plasma HDTV
http://www.plasmadepot.com/sony_plas...de37xs955.html

Yamaha A/V Digital Receiver
http://www.avperfection.com/scripts/...?idproduct=657

Jamo 5.1 Speakers (and Stands)
http://sales.concert-systems.com/sales/JAM-A305PDD.html

Sony Progressive Combo Player
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...ature-SLVD560P
or http://tinyurl.com/cvupm

They will be getting the local cable co. HDTV DVR box as well.

The shop will do the install at $70/hr. When the final sales
paperwork was shown to me, they had added $300 for 'wire'. I said
that was awfully high and asked what it included. They said it was
standard for their installs to use all Monster cables and that was
their estimate for the component connects and speaker wire.

I took a quick look at their connectors display and sure enough, they
basically only carried Monster.

Despite my recommendation against accepting this, my father said he
trusted the shop's sales person and would accept the deal as written.

So, in this instance, it appeared their only choices were to accept
the shop's way of doing it or get their own connectors. Since I live
out of town, I couldn't go shopping for the connectors myself (I
didn't have time that day to do it either) and my father and
stepmother don't know what to buy.

If I had the time to go to Radio Shack, we could have bought something
equivalent (IMHO) for a lot less:

2 ea. - 50' 14 Gage Speaker Wire - $44
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...Fid=278%2D2761

3 ea. - High Quality 6' Component Cables - $90
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=15%2D1563

The combo player probably comes with a A/V cable with composite vid
and L/R phono audio plugs for the VCR portion. Some 75 ohm cable TV
wire connectors might be needed too, so add another $20-$30 for misc
connectors, if needed. Perhaps put the difference saved towards some
sort of universal remote.

Comments? Is this standard practice in high end shops? Should it be?
Any other suggestions on what I should have done and can do now?

There are two principal means of assembling a home theatre.

(1) Go to a shop that installs home theatres and have them come in and do
the job top to bottom, using their best judgment as to how things should be
assembled. That doesn't mean you give them a blank check, but you do need to
leave some judgment calls to them. You will likely end up with a very nicely
done home theatre that will work well, commensurate with the amount you
expended, and if something doesn't work (not likely) they will fix it. The
job will also be neat and efficient, with wires installed in the walls,
projectors and equipment correctly mounted, and your components efficiently
integrated. The company will take responsibility for the overall job and
your overall satisfaction. You will NOT get the lowest price, but you will
most likely get the best job, executed by folks that do this for living and
thusly have to do things right or they will not be in business long.

(2) Make the rounds of Best Buy, Circuit City, Radio Shack, etc. Buy
individual components, carefully balancing quality vs. price. Bring
everything home and assemble your system with your own two hands. You will
get the lowest possible price, and do the most work yourself. You will
likely get a fine system, but you will spend a lot of time and effort, and
things may not be constructed optimally. You will find that it is not all
that easy to figure out what to do by yourself. You will have to absorb the
entire learning curve to perform just one installation, as opposed to Method
#1 which is done by folks that do it all the time and can wire the back of
my Denon 5800 with their eyes closed.

Those of us that read the newsgroups, myself included, almost universally
utilize Method #2. You will not fine many defenders of Method #1 because
those guys don't need to post in this venue because they pay professionals
to do the job, and get it right the first time.

I greatly aspire to join the Method #1 group. Rather than rolling up my
sleeves and hacking through it, I would much prefer to sit down with a
professional for couple of ours to plan the job, then go out for a day and
come home to a finely tuned home theatre. I long to pay extra and not be
bothered beyond turning on my Infocus Screenplay 777 and enjoying a system
well planned and assembled by someone else, rather than using my self
assembled system complete with a five year old bulky rear projection model.

This type of analysis is not limited to home theatre issues. How many people
go out and purchase a copy of Turbo Tax and knock out their own tax return?
Question: is it better to absorb the learning curve to do one tax return, or
pay extra to hire a professional who does three or four hundred tax returns
per year? Doubtless, you WILL save money doing it yourself, but does that
make it necessarily the better method? Again, I aspire to be the guy that
hires a professional and pays the freight.

There you have it, in a big nutshell. Both methods work, but you have pros
and cons and need to make a choice. Whichever way you go will probably be
the right choice, for you.