I’m moving into an on-campus apartment next year with some cool guys at my school. and we naturally want to make sure the place is hopping. What better way to make your apartment stand out and promise an awesome atmosphere than to invest in a full home theater system? Ever since my family invested in one a few years back, I started to read up on home theater systems and dreamt of the day when I could choose my own system in which to invest. With so many options out there now, it can be hard to decide what to get. It’s important to make sure you know what you’re getting, but doing that little bit of research and searching can find you some amazing deals in today’s market.
One of my roommates was responsible for purchasing the TV, and because he searched around and read up on TVs, he snagged a 50 inch flat screen TV for about $500, the same TV that sells for over a thousand at most retail outlets. I took on the responsibility of purchasing the sound system, which encompasses the speakers, A/V receiver, and the accessories like cables, which I will specifically talk about later. I did weeks and weeks of research, catching myself up on the new technology, trying to hand-pick the best systems and deals, reading through forums, etc.
The first thing I did, after weeks of research, was pick up a brand new Windows desktop because my laptop was lagging in technology. Not only do I now have a powerful computer for school work and business work, but I made sure that this computer had the ability to power my entire home theater system, meaning that I can play most games, music, movies, TV, etc through this computer, and the computer sends this information to the home theater system with HD audio and picture.
I need the sound system for this to work of course, and though I had been set on a sound system for a while, I did some more in-depth research and found an even better system that’s cheaper, better quality, and bundled with an A/V receiver. The computer cost $600 and has plenty of room for upgrades, some of which I did already, and when you do your research and find the right websites, you find very cheap but efficient upgrades that are much cheaper to do yourself if you take the few minutes to watch an online tutorial and do it yourself. My sound system with the receiver cost a grand, which isn’t the cheapest price out there, but when you consider that it’s about the best in its class and saved me about a thousand over the sound system I was locked on, it’s a great deal that will last for years. The recurring themes here are research, effort, and the right online retailers saving you a lot of money and giving you good quality.
So now we have our whole home theater, but oh wait, it all has to be connected, right? I guess I’ll just have to buy a few cables and connect everything, which should be easy and cheap…wait what, $40 for one HDMI cable, I heard wrong, $60 for it, no $120? I guess I overlooked this small but important aspect of a home theater system. So now after the weeks of research and great finds, I still have a few hundred dollars to shell out for cables? The answer, if you choose it to be, is a big fat no.
Alright, so how do I magically say no and still connect everything without having a fully functional but dormant system without the cables? Where did I do almost all of my research and purchasing with much success and money saved? The internet! If you wander into a retail store, they might dupe you into buying a system that you don’t need or that’s overpriced, and though it’s good to know what you’re getting and save money like in my example, but you’ll get a decent system either way. The big difference is now, the salesperson will tell you that you need the proper cables, which you most certainly do, and because you don’t know any better, you wind up shelling off hundreds of dollars when you thought you were done spending after purchasing the system. People like me say no, and when we go to websites like amazon.com, we find those same exact cables for ridiculously cheaper. The HDMI cable, which is becoming standard in home theaters now, costs around$40 and can run above $120, but those same exact cables can range in cost from five dollars to three cents! Three cents instead of $120, you’ve got to be kidding me! And I’m not. The cables are literally the same things, granted the longer ones run a little more money, but the most expensive cable you’ll buy won’t go over $20, and that’s for cables of like 50 feet. So not only do these websites tell you a little about the products and give you discounted prices, but they save you a lot of money on accessories; they make accessories what they’re supposed to be, accessories. A cable or two should not cost as much as a nice LCD monitor or a half-decent stereo system.
The bottom line is do your research folks. Companies and more importantly retailers are out there to rip you off. My roommates and I saved a lot of money and got great quality for our theater system thanks to research, internet buying, and checking enough stores/catalogs for steals. Most importantly, I now have more cables than I need, and of all varieties, because they were so cheap, that I figured I might as well get them in bulk if I’m already paying a nominal shipping fee. This example applies to just about any accessory, especially those commonly sold in retail stores, because they are almost always heavily overpriced.
Another thing to note that’s very important is with internet research, you have to be careful because there are people who either don’t know what they’re talking about or actually work for the companies themselves to dupe you. Read a lot of reviews and forums, and make sure to use multiple sources. So for less than two grand, my apartment will have a 50 inch TV, powerful media computer, and seven speaker and one subwoofer sound system. For a bunch of college kids, that’s not too bad.
