I get the impression that the home theater and audio markets die every summer, when the outside world beckons... and then they come back to life once the snow starts to fall. I might make it up to the loft (where the HT is) twice in a summer, vs 2-3 times a week in the winter.
That said, I do remember that 10 years ago it seemed that the "affordable state of the art" became outdated a lot more quickly, at least for players and projectors. Progress still seems to be just as rapid, but it feels like we are reaching a point of diminishing returns in the sense that there isn't the obvious "OMG how can I live without that ?" sense that we got going from a CRT to a 720p or 1080p display/projector.
I am still running a Sanyo 720p projector and don't feel like I'm missing out on a lot, although I should upgrade to 1080p if only to avoid downscaling from BluRay.
But hey, winter is coming, I'll be back indoors...
...and down in the basement a record cleaning machine and 500+ LPs are waiting for me
