OK. I won't name names to protect the guilty... Anyway, I was flipping channels this weekend, and came across a show that was about installing a home theater into a house. It was one of those generic home improvement shows where you don't actually do any of the work yourself, but pay some "expert" to do it for you...
I watched it anyway. This guy who was the host of the show was having a home theater installed in his living room. So he hires some expert to come in and do the set up.
They did a nice, clean, professional installation, but it was their gear choices that surprised me. It was almost like they were home imrpovement guys that would also install a home theater if you wanted, instead of home theater guys that also did installations.
Anyway, they threw up the typical plasma TV. Looks cool, is wide screen, and HDTV. Probably a good choice for a living room situation. Then came the part where they "pro" talked up surround sound and 5.1 sound, blah blah blah, and that the system that they were going to install would be top of the line and yet very descrete in physical appearance... I knew where it was going, but was hoping that this "pro" woulnd't do it....
Out comes the Bose system. The little cubes for the 5 main speakers and the bass module. The wires and mountings for the subes is nicely done, but they have to run all of the wires to the bass modulewhere they plug in and then the bass module goes to the receiver. They focused so much on Bose (they must have continued to spend their money on marketing and product placement than actually making good speakers) that I don't even recall much about the receiver or DVD player. As if that wasn't enough, they mounted the front right/left all the way to the side corners of the room (which was pretty wide), and much too far apart considering the 40" plasma. We are talking something like a 30' wide room, putting these little cubes over 13' to each side of the edges of the screen. Then, they took the two rear speakers (which were also on the side walls) and angled them down towards the listening area. Ugh! I have read article after article about people that DO know what they are talking about, and you do NOT want to point the surround speakers at the listening area. You want to, in this case, point them up towards the ceiling to reflect the sound and create a bigger sound field, not focus them right to a specific seat on the couch...
OK. Now, I do not make a living, or even $0.05 a year on home theater anything, but some of this seems pretty basic. How is it that these folks can continue to be called "professionals" with these types of recomendations and installs? Is the general consumer supposed to pay an inflated premium for sub-level quality components? I guess so.
And on drones the marketing monster....
