Great topic for my first post.
I got my first all in one (record player, tape deck, radio and speakers) Emerson stereo system for Christmas in the early 80's. The stereo pushed out a steady diet of hits like Weird Al Yankovic, Kiss Alive II, Twisted Sister, Survivor, Vixen, Winger, and Samantha Fox on tape and vinyl until 1988, when I was given a Sony Walkman with car adaptor that was shaped like a tape as a Confirmation gift. Being a little inventive, I put the "tape" from the Walkman into my stereo's tape deck and slammed the deck's door real hard so the wire would not prevent the deck from closing.
My new hi-fidelity machine was cranking along until the Summer of 1989, when my left speaker blew while listening to Lita Ford's "Kiss Me Deadly." Luckily, I had a summer job and some money saved up and bought a floor model Yamaha system at Macy's (at the time the only stereo store in the neighborhood). The system had a seperate receiver, dual tape player, radio tuner, and floor standing speakers. The next summer, I saved up some money for a separate CD player and retired the Walkman. The system served me through college and then some.
In the Summer of 1999, thanks in part to my Qualcomm stock going up 160 points in one day, I decided to take the plunge into DVD. All I knew about it was the PQ on DVD was much better than on VCR tapes and there were some cool extras. I went to my local Best Buy and looked at their selection. I was ready to pick up a Sony player when one of the sales people recommended a cheaper Phillips model. He also told me that the real selling point of DVD was the "5.1 surround sound" and that I needed a receiver. I told him I already had a receiver. After some back and forth, I realized that my receiver was not 5.1 capable. This was the first and only time an employee at Best Buy knew more about home theater than I did. Luckily for me, Best Buy had a deal where you got 18 months financing if you bought a reciever and DVD player at the same time. I picked up a Pioneer DD/DTS player and the DVD "Ronin" to demo my system. I set up the new receiver and player the same day and hooked them up to my 27" TV. I pick the disk in the player, chose Dolby Digital as my sound format, and sat back to enjoy the fun. Every thing was great until Robert Deniro's mouth opened up and I could not hear what he was saying. Re-reading the directions, I found out that sice I did not have a center or surround channel, I couldn't enjoy 5.1 sound. I knew then home theater had me in its expensive grasp
Since the Best Buy I bought my player at was over an hour away, I decided to shop around the local J & R Music World for a center and surround. They had a special for a Yamaha center and surround for $125. I jumped on it and immediately integrated them into my system. I watched "Blade" and was in nirvana. Next up, replace those chessy floor standers, they were so 1989.
A couple of months later, I was at another Best Buy and started looking at their floor standers. The salesman actually told me stay away from BOSE - because they were way overpriced! Can you believe it, a BB employee who knew what he was talking about. I mentioned that I had a Yamaha center and surrounds and he pointed me to a set of Yamaha mains that had subwoofers in them. Living in an apartment, I knew getting a real sub was out of the question, so I bought these speakers for about $400.
The obsession didn't end there, as I now wanted to replace my TV so I could take advantage of composite video. I knew I had to do this quick because I was getting married in a year. I settled on a 36" Sony XBR250. J&R had a great deal on it and had it shipped to my apartment.
This setup held me until 2003. With my 2002 bonus, I upgraded my DVD player to a Panny CP-72 and really wanted to get rid of the Yamaha center to really enhance the dialogue of my DVDs. At this point, I started researching on the web and my home theater obsession really began to heatup. I came upon the website "Audioholics.com" and went to their system recommendations list. It was there I discovered Axioms. I started lurking on this site around the July 2003 and ordered the VP-100 around that time. In August, my wife and I sold our apartment and moved on to the NJ suburbs. Our house had a fully finished basement, which I dubbed my "Man-Room" and started designing my new home theater setup. We made really good money on the apartment and the buyer offered to buy my Sony for $800. With some of the proceeds, I upgraded my Pioneer receiver (horrible for CD music and incapable of DVD-A, which I really started to get into) to a Harman Kardon AVR-525. I also picked up a Velodyne VX-10 subwoofer ($199 entry level) I replaced my Sony 36" with a Panasonic 47" RPTV (got a $50 discount at BB since service was awful and my very pregnant wife started yelling at the floor manager). My overhaul was nearly complete. The only thing I needed to do was replace those low-grade Yamaha speakers. I figured I would have to wait a while with a baby on the way. On December 12, 2003, I got some good news/bad news from home: our basement had flooded (bad) and my Yamaha speakers were destoyed (good). My insurance covered the full purchase value of the electonics destroyed. I took the $400 reimbursement for the speakers and bought some Axiom M-22s!! World of difference, I couldn't believe what I was missing. My subwoofer and PS2 were also ruined, but I replaced them with a HSU STF-2 subwoofer and got another PS2 (didn't have time for PS2 witha brand new baby). My Panny TV had to be repaired due to flood damage and the insurance company even paid for a professional calibration. So, the flood was actually a win for me. I have been in Axiom bliss for about a year now.
Recently, I upgraded my Yamaha surrounds with a the QS-4s and moved the Yammy's to the back for rear surrounds and added an Outlaw ICBM which really enhanced my DVD-A experience. I think I am done for a while - but I am just kidding myself.
