Surround Sound

So now that we have sold our house Kelly and I each got $2000 of mad money. Money to buy anything you ever wanted but didn’t have enough money for in the past. Now at first I approached this with the “oh, I am going to buy this little thing and that little thing and I had a million little things I wanted to buy. But why? Why do I need all these things and better question why spend this huge chunk of change on things I could save up for easy enough and buy later on. So I gave it more thought and came up with SURROUND SOUND. Yup, that’s what I have sort of wanted in the back of my mind for a while and it is expensive enough that in order to get a reasonable system I personally could never save up that much money. Now Kelly on the other hand could probably save up that kind of dough but not me, money “burns a hole in my pocket” I am a consumer, I love to shop, I love to window shop, I love to impulse buy. And it is only after having lived with Kelly for… WOW! Fourteen years now that I have it under some semblance of control.

So here I am on the pinnacle of a decision, which surround sound system do I get. Do I do the research or do I just ask a couple of friends who have systems what they think. And in the end do they really know any more than me about it or do they just know what they like/need. In this case I go the easy route I ask some friends take my Friend Chad with me shopping for morale support and solicit the advice of the sales people. First sales person in Best Buy, not helpful,
“uh yeah, that’s a pretty good system. And on sale too.”
Second sales person at Circuit City.
“How much are looking to spend?”
“well what kind of musical listening are you going to do?”
“How big is your room?”
“What kind of components do you already have?”
“Do you want an intergrated DVD surround system or do you want to buy the individual components?”
and the questions kept coming and the advice followed soon after my answers. I was beginning to FEEL informed. So I talked to that guy for a little bit and then told him I had to think about it. His name by the way is Craig and he is the head audio sales guy at circuit city on Independence blvd, in VA beach VA. If you run into him say hi. So I wandered around the store for a bit looked at the TV’s contemplated the decision and then Chad and I left the store.
I went home and looked on the internet to see what sort of comparable pricing ther was and try and figure out what is “Surround sound” what’s the difference between 5.1 & 6.1 & 7.1 and where will it all end. If I buy 7.1 which is the pinnacle right now am I only buying into the current level of premium only to be outdated tomorrow. Do I have enough room in my living room for 7 speakers, what the hell are all the speakers for. Do I care. Ultimately it came down to do I care. 6.1 makes sense to me right left and center in the front right left and center in the rear. And one subwoofer to add the bottom end. 7.1 and you have 3 in the front and four in the rear. There is something I am not getting there, why do we need two speakers on either side in the rear. So I ended up with 6.1. I went back to circuit city found Craig and bought the Onkyo 6.1 1000 watts of power. What does 1000 watts really mean, I never truly understood it had something to do with amps and interference and something else but it didn’t really matter to me as it was only a number, I never figure I will turn up my stereo loud enough to find out what 1000 watts really means to me as I live in an apt now. An apt with surround sound. An apt with 1000 watts of power. And no couch.


SurroundSound