Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater I ALMOST CRIED!!!

y'all know i am building an HT for one of my buddies.. well, i had been giving another friend of mine advice on HT stuff, and trying to lead him in the right direction. he had told me that he was still several months away from doing anything, so he wanted to do some 'investigating' now.

well, he just sent me an e-mail telling me his wife decided to surprise him for his birthday. she had his brother and his mom pitch in, and went and bought him a 7.1 Sony HTIB. NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

so now, he tells me he feels obligated to keep it since they ALL pitched in to buy it for him, and he doesnt want to hurt his wifes feelings.. ugh!! anyway, now he says that since he has his new speakers with sub, he just needs a new receiver, and he is good to go. i almost told him to go buy an apex, and be done with it.. he seems to think that since the speakers are sony, that he should go with a sony receiver.. who knows..? i found this and i was gonna see what any of y'all thought about it?

i almost dont wanna help him, cause at this point, i dont think anything is gonna make those micro HTIB's sound very good. but, i dont want him going out there and buying a $100 Kraco receiver from Rex Electronics that will break in 8 months.

anyone got good stuff to say about sony receivers(not ES series)..?

bigjohn

So they bought him a Sony 7.1 HTIB, that does not include a receiver, boy Sony is getting cheap these days? All I can say is that my budy purchased a Sony HTIB recently that did include a receiver and DVD combination, once we even turned it up slightly the speakers sounded awful and distorted. He didn't have a lot of $$$$ to spend so he took it back and found a nice Yamaha setup with DVD and seperate receiver and it does sound 100% better, although not up to par with my Axiom system.

Those speakers will be the albatross around his neck.

If you've borrowed anything from him or him from you, now would be the time to swap those things back, he will slowly sink into the quagmire of mini micro satellites. He is beyond your reach now. Let him slip away lest you go down with him...



Bren R.

Let him know that the longer he waits before decided to take that stuff back, the more "hurt" his wife and family would be. Perhaps you could offer to help him set it up with his family present. You could conveniently have on hand a couple of your speakers that you were taking to a friends house to demo (or something), then A/B them for him and his family. If then still think the HTiB is OK; then they get what they deserve. If THEY decide that they should have gotten better speakers, then there won't be any hurt feelings.

Jeese, kinda manipulative for my first post.

The albatross with a brick.
What an awful situation. However, there are ways to politely decline the gift. Ask for a gift certificate at Axiom instead.
Ppl should always ask before buying something personal for someone else.

Trouble with that is many (most?) people don't see speakers or home theaters or whatever as personal. Same deal with a computer or computer parts.

I'd stay away from the sony receivers. I've had one, and I have two friends that have them and they all pretty much stink. To add to that...if it came with a dvd player, it'll likely be dead within a year. Again, I've owned two...both died within a year. My friends just died. Sorry to say it but Sony HT products suck.

Stick with the usual suspects. Denon, H/K, Onkyo...

Was this the guy you were considering the five M3ti's for?

Tell him to buy 7 M3Ti's and replace the Axiom logos with Sony logos. I'd say he would have a good chance of saying "these were in the box and I love them" and pulling it off.

you should pull him to the side and work out a plan to say that the system is broken and have him return it and say there werent any more in stock-then move on up to the axioms and tell the ones that pitched in for the gift thats what he got instead?....just an idea

She'll get over the hurt feelings. He, however, would have to live with that crap for who knows how long. I say bite the bullet and take that junk back for a refund and get some real speakers (that is if your buddy cares at all about good sound). BTW, that Sony receiver is just piling junk on top of junk ( from personal experience). Just my 2 cents.

I dunno, man, that's a tough situation. I think he may just have to level with her. I mean, it was a wonderful thought, but it's not what he was looking for. But geez, that's a bad one.

or you could pound some beers go over there and urinate on his center speaker........just kidding..well...not really kidding

Ahh, but why lie?

It's going to come out at some point... like he'll lean across the table one morning meaning to say "pass the syrup" and it'll come out "you bought me s****y speakers, you b****!"

Bren R.

LOL! Oh man, I almost spewed pop all over my computer monitor. Good idea though.

spiff- no, the guy i was looking at getting the 5 M3's, ended up getting a VP100, and a set of M22's. he still need a receiver, sub(hes getting a SVS PB-10), and surrounds.. he was supposed to bring the 22's to my house to listen to last night, and didnt.. i am still mad at him. and thanks for the advice on sony.

mwc- i hear you on the wife getting over the speakers... i just know he is gonna go to her and say, "bigjohn said these speakers were no good.. so we need to take them back, and buy about $800 more of good speakers".... i think she will hate me from that minute on.. sure, she wont be mad at him, she will be mad at ME!!! there is just no easy way around this situation..

i did give him my honest opinions on the sony HTIB.. he is into heavy metal/thrash/grunge type rock.. and most of that is all mid-range guitar.. and i told him that those micros have the worst mids ever.. so, hopefully he can have enough fortitude to pull up his dingle-berries, and tell his wife how its gonna be.. cause if not, i am scared he will be very disappointed.

BTW- he is on small budget for a receiver.. i found a 7.1 pioneer for $300, but it has very few features.. it is just dang near impossible to find a 7.1 receiver, of decent quality, for less than $500.. i even told him to forget about the 7.1, and just get a 5.1 to save money.. plus, those sony micros are gonna sound crappy regardless if there are 5 of them, or 7 of them..

see, this is why i should just build my own HT, and let the rest fend for themselves.. i feel like i am somehow personally involved now..

EDIT- funny bren.. now pass the butter..(as he gets hit in the face with a stick of margarine!!)

bigjohn

Good friends of mine just bought a HTIB as well. They were going to buy the whole Bose system, but I at least talked them out of that!

I've had my Sony reciever (that my brother now uses) for about 20 months now and it's still working. My dad's old reciever was a Sony he pushed strong for about six years. There is nothing "wrong" with Sony HT gear, it's just that you get more power and quality with the more respected reciever models. The only sound difference between my Sony and Denon receiver's is that the Denon seems to "effortlessly" push my speakers while it seemed like the Sony had to be tortured to play relatively high SPL's. With that said, I still wouldn't recommend Sony, I just don't like the bashing.

John, I just picked up a refurbed Denon AVR1705 from eCOST for my bedroom system ($199). Nice little basic receiver. No preouts, no phono input, only 3 digital audio inputs, but with 75wpc (maybe?) and component video conversion, it will do fine for what I need.

If that isn't enough, eCOST has the Denon AVR1905 refurb for $279.95. No phono input, but it has 75 wpc, 7.1 preouts, 4 digital audio inputs, component video conversion,

and the Denon AVR2105 refurb for $359.99. 90 wpc, auto calibration, 7.1 preouts, 5 digital audio inputs, component video conversion, phono input, etc.

killer!! thanks jack.. that 2105 is cheaper than the sony he was thinkin about getting.. i just gotta convince him that the refurb is not a bad thing..

man, i hope he goes with that.. after i told him my dislike of the sony speakers, he already wrote me back and asked if he didnt like them, that he could always get some new, bigger fronts at a later date.. i told him "yes", but i figure, why wait.. just go ahead and take those back, and get some new, bigger ones right now!!

walkin a fine line here..............

bigjohn

"What I MEANT to say was, can I please have a ticket to Pittsburgh..."

bigjohn, how much was the Sony abomination? Isn't the Hsu Ventriloquist system quite affordable? It would still be lots of little boxes, but I suspect it would be much better than the Sony and probably not much more money.

The solution is too simple. When no one is home you put in your ear plugs and crank that POS to the max until everyone of those "speakers" pop. It shouldnt take long.

If you dont mind risking eloctrocution you could poke around inside it while it is plugged in and the power is on, until the sparks start a'flying.

Hell just fake a break-in and tell the old bird that that was all they took.Of course my wife knows me well enough not to tread on MY TERRITORY IN THE HOUSE, electronics, computers, guns, lawn equipment, cars, all the manly type things. And I am smart enough not to tread on her areas, or even make negative comments.

I think the real problem here is that there is a profound lack of communication in this relationship. Sad really sad. Another case for Dr. Phil.

Whatever method he uses to sabotage the Sony doesn't matter. Take it back to where they got it. Make a big show of how he was really diappointed in Sony, but thanks for trying dear. Exchange it for something else entirely, if they don't have any real HT equipment there.Then, in the not too distant future, he can go ahead and get a nice Axiom set up.

Anything that has colour in it (black or otherwise) is personal in my book.
If i ever bought my wife a new car that was all pink, i KNOW i would be hearing about it.
Car good, pink bad.

Bite the bullet and tell her the truth. You can appreciate the though and gesture without having to like the actual gift. Come on...have you seen the return lines on December 26th? Tell her you already had your heart set on another system, and put the money they gave for the Sony towards the system you really want.

Seem rather straight forward to me. (yeah...I hemmed and hawed over telling Roger about the 2900, but in the end I told him the truth and everything was fine)

I agree, if he is honest there should be no issues, unless the relationship is already rocky.

Do him a favor. Have him leave the door open the next time they go out. Slip in and steal the HTIB. What are friends for?

BTW - not long after Jack got his Denon 1705 from ecost, I picked up a 1905. (Hmmm, how far behind can Curtis be???). If you compare the 1905 and 2105, the 1905 ends up being the better value. The differences are more esoteric than substanial.

In reply to:

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i just know he is gonna go to her and say, "bigjohn said these speakers were no good.. so we need to take them back, and buy about $800 more of good speakers".... i think she will hate me from that minute on..

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In that case, you're just gonna have to look him in the eye and say, grow a.........oh never mind.

It could have been worse...

He could have got a bose

You're welcome, John. Hope it works out for your friend.

well, it thought of a solution...but it depends on how much he really likes his house and how much fire insurance he has. seriously though, if i were him, i'd have to risk insulting the family and get the refund. it'll be better in the long run; i know i'd be a little resentful if i had to go back to HTIB system now.

OK here's what he should do.

Tell the wife and tell the folks that he loves his new home theater system, he just wants to add a bit of his own money to upgrade it to the very next level. Meanwhile he has already ordered a full Axiom set up (M2's or M'3s all round) and then he returns the HTIB.

Is anybody really going to notice a brand change?? If they think HTIB is the way to go they obviously don't know about speakers so the are not going to know about the change in brands. And even if they do, all he has to say is, they didn't have the next level of Sony's so I had to settle on these darned Axioms.

It just might work and nobody's feelings would get hurt.

I think you guys are underestimating what people do and do not notice. In this day and age, EVERYONE notices brands of things. Plus M2s and M3s are about three times the size of your average HTIB speaker.

Come on. . it was almost working!

it sounded good in theory, i could see doing it. maybe his relatives are old, with poor eyesight, or have memory problems it just might work!

I like this plan. This is a good plan. This just might work.

all very funny and interesting ideas.. except for the one about "burning the house down".. seemed a tad bit extreme..

my buddy and his wife went out of town this weekend, so i am gonna try and talk with him today.. i goal is to get him to bring the HTIB over to my house, and we can hook everything up, and i can show him just how bad it will sound. plus, i hope that once he hears mine by comparison, he will see that this is a no-brainer decision to take them back.

as far as i am aware, they only spent a little over $200 bucks for the box set(are you kidding me?), so i just dont expect a lot from these speakers.

so, will have to wait til tonight and see if he brings them over. i am sure any decision will take a few days. but, she did buy them in austin, so they will have to make a trip there to return them. i am going there this weekend myself, so it would be real easy for me to offer to return the sony set for them.. just kinda sweeten the deal a bit.

bigjohn

Am I the only one who sees what is going on here? This was a deliberate, (potentially) evil, pre-emptive move by the wife to keep the husband from spending much money on the sound system. She went to her family with "You have to help me keep my husband from spending $____ on a bunch of speakers that are too big and ugly and will ruin the look of our room. Go out and get a really cheap - but most importantly really small - system and give it to him as a gift to get him over this home theater phase he is going through so I can spend that money on something else."
Depending on the family's financial situation it may be the right fiscal answer, but it is something the two of them should come to together. Because of this, I am willing to bet that it is so not about the sound that no amount of convincing with comparisons to good speakers will change her mind...

Paranoid much?

If I were married, and found out my wife did that - I'm afraid I'd have to kill her.

foghorn- i definitely dont think there was any devious intentions on her part.. i think she was truly trying to do something nice, and just had no idea about sound quality, HTIB's, etc. i think she was more motivated by price than anything else. she saw what looked like a BIG system at a small price, and just jumped on it.

this is still a situation is process, so i am just waiting to see how it turns out.. all i can do is attempt to guide him in the right direction, and hope he follows my directions. if not, then the best i can do is at least get him to buy a good receiver, and then in a few years when the sony micros blow out, he will at least have a good receiver to build on.

bigjohn

Maybe you should guide him to something with 200-400-WPC and see EXACTLY how far you can push the Sonys.

"Paranoid much?"

Maybe so, but I've seen or heard about stuff like this too many times to not have it cross my mind. I actually started that post as an over-the-top tongue-in-cheek post but partway through I started thinking that I've seen stuff like that go on so much (fortunately, not in my marriage) that it's not as ridiculous as I thought when I started typing...

I still think that if she doesn't recognize the issue after comparing to Axioms or some other good quality sound system then I'm not as far off the mark as some might suggest.

Even if the sonys rock out connected to your receiver, blow them out anyways

Why is it that when you a/b your system with a set of Bose that a friend is hung up on, they will still choose Bose. I really think a lot of people just don't have a good ear for sound.

As far as a wife is concerned, I'm making sure I have all the toys I want before I get married.

"As far as a wife is concerned, I'm making sure I have all the toys I want before I get married. "


That does'nt work!! She'll "encourage" you to sell what you don't NEED!!