OK here’s the thing.

I. Love. Shopping.

I’m not talking about boring old grocery shopping, I speak of the holy grail of shopping, major electrical object shopping. And the holy grail of major electrical object shopping? Audio Visual equipment shopping. This surpasses only brand-spanking new computer shopping in my opinion.

When it comes to holy grail-type shopping, I approach the mission with the thoroughness of a CSI investigator. I spend sleepless nights in front of the computer (well, maybe I am exaggerating there, I DO sleep), researching, following link after link, comparing brands, reading reviews, comparing prices, typing ” problem” into Google, taking note of best prices found. Only after doing this do I speak of my mission to others, ferreting out experts in the particular field of electrical object and dangling a toe in the water of “I’m thinking about buying , what do you think?”

Then, armed with more information than a poor electrical object sales-guy can poke a stick at, I venture out to the shops on a mission to BUY BUY BUY!

Well bugger me if I haven’t totally been stymied in my hunt for a new hifi system.

You see, I had a dream hifi system when I was married, but unfortunately I chose all the good furniture rather than the hifi in the split, so have been subsisting with a completely crap cheap sound system which I bought as a stop-gap. Well that was seven years ago and I CAN’T TAKE IT ANY MORE!

I want to buy a really good AV receiver and 2 really good speakers to start with. I plan to build to a surround system from there, with the next purchase of a sub-woofer. I dream to one day watch and listen to my “Hell Freezes Over” DVD in sparkling DTS, but for now, I’ll just settle for hearing my music well. I don’t plan on buying a cheap surround sound package deal from a pimply college-boy at an electrical mega-mart, I want higher-quality stuff.

This is my problem. Of course I INSIST on hearing what I am going to buy. I aint buying if my knees don’t go weak at the sound, but the problem is, there just isn’t any good hifi specialists around any more. You remember the kind that have sound setups in soundproof rooms where they can switch between various amps and speakers? I’ve been to the only 2 such little stores in Sydney with the intent to buy and both times I’ve walked away with my wallet still full. That NEVER happens to me!

The first place was trying to hard-sell me a Yamaha amp. Now I know that Yamaha are producing some decent higher-end stuff now, but I just can’t get past thinking of Yamaha as a brand like Sanyo, cheap and nasty. My old system was Kenwood and Bose, which were higher-end in them days, and now people tell me both brands have gone nasty so not to go there.

At the second place I was close, looking at a Harman Kardon amp and Klipsch speakers, but something made me hesitate before buying. I think it’s because I’m not sure if I am getting a good price. I feel they are charging close to retail, and I know stereo equipment has a huge markup, but the problem is, when you’re looking for brands like that, there just isn’t any place on the Internet down here to compare.

So here I’ll be, heading out the door again tomorrow. I hear one of the mega-electrical marts close by have some Harmon Kardon stuff which, of course, they don’t list on their website. They don’t list ANYTHING on their website damn them.

I swear, I can almost guarantee I’ll still be listening to my crap hifi tomorrow night :cry_wp:

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