Sound System

It’s Kyle again.  Jasmin makes fun of me when I start blog posts like that, but let’s face it; I don’t post on here very often and if I didn’t tell you it was me you’d just assume it was Jasmin, and then you’d be totally confused when she started referring to herself in the third person, or you’d think she was talking about what she and ANOTHER Jasmin without an “e” are doing.  It’s for the best.

Anyway, it’s Kyle again.

Over the weekend, Jasmin and I decided to upgrade to surround sound in our living room. Obviously this is something that I care about way more than she does, so the lady gets major points for being so awesome about it.  It's something I've been wanting since we got a TV, but I didn't really see the point in bringing it up because we already had some pretty nice speakers hooked up to the TV.  The only issue was really that the speakers I've had hooked up for the last two years are technically a set of very nice computer speakers, which means there is no remote control.  As a result, our movie-watching experience usually goes like this:

BOOM! CLANG CLANG! AAAAH!

(Kyle gets up and turns down the speakers)

Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me.  I wish none of this had happened."

Jasmin makes a weird face and says something like, "What did he say about bling?  Kyle, I can't hear what they're sayiiiiing."

(Kyle doesn't move, so Jasmin gets up and turns the speakers back up)

EXPLOSIOOOON!

(Kyle jumps up to turn down the speakers, but trips on the coffee table and knocks over a candle, which lands in an open container of something flammable and burns down the entire apartment building)

I know what you're thinking.  Yes, we do have renters insurance, and for specifically this reason.  But for the sake of our safety we decided to buy a receiver and some new speakers anyway.

The receiver was purchased at Best Buy because there was a great deal on a good one, but it wasn't available at any of the stores around us, so Jasmin's mom was kind enough to pick it up at the Best Buy near them, about an hour south of us.  Then we went down there on Monday for dinner and brought the receiver back with us.

I tried taking my own photos but they just looked bad, so I just used some from the internet.

After doing LOTS of research on speakers, I found the ones that I thought were the best value and ordered them on Amazon, along with 100ft of Monoprice (see note at bottom) 16 gauge oxygen free copper wire, because oxygen free copper wire has lower resistivity, represented in equations as the Greek letter "rho" or “ρ”, than copper clad aluminum wire, or CCD.  Too nerdy?  Good.

The plan today was that I would go to work and the speakers would be waiting for me at my front door when I got home.  What did I find instead?  One small box with a roll of copper wire inside.  That's right.  UPS decided to leave half of my shipment outside and hold the other half ransom.  I was a little bit frustrated with the UPS guy, but I worked hard to keep it together.  What did I do next, you ask?  I got back in my car and drove to UPS, walked inside, and very politely asked if there was any way that I could get my hands on box 2 of 2.

"Yes," said the man behind the counter. "If you call the number on the back of the note that the delivery man left on your door, you can tell them that you want to pick it up here tonight, and we'll have it ready at 8.  We are open for pickup between 8 and 9pm every night."

I had NO IDEA you could do this, but it was a great surprise.  It's probably best that the speakers didn't get dropped off at the same time as the wire, because it means that I wasn't in as much of a rush to get the wiring done.  As a result, I did a way better job than I probably would have done otherwise.  I bet the UPS guy knew that about me.

Now that they're all hooked up, I can tell you that they are AWESOME and will last us a very long time.  Our entertainment center is complete.  Plus, with our shiny new Apple TV, we can stream music to our sound system wirelessly, we can stream video to the TV wirelessly, and we have access to Netflix, etc. without having to use the Xbox.  Glorious.

Note at bottom: If you ever need cables or wires or any kind of electrical connector, go to www.monoprice.com and save yourself some money.  Weird company name, but great stuff.  They're the best cables you can find for way less than you'd pay elsewhere.  If this saves just one person from buying a Monster brand cable, I'll be happy.