New entertainment system!
When Jen and I first started dating, I had a TV and no stereo and she had a stereo and no TV. It seemed like a great match, and for a long time we got by with what we had. About 4 years ago I decided to upgrade our TV and went from the old 27″ tube that we had to a Panasonic projection TV which at the time was a totally fantastic TV. Recently though the LCD projection technology has started to show its age so I talked myself into buying a new Sharp Aquos. The new LCD technology has come a long way and looks really amazing. Especially with the 1080i HD signal that we can get from Comcast, it is a beautiful picture.
Compared to the new TV, our sound system was starting to look very old. Back in 1985, Jen bought a new tuner and a used receiver and speakers and they were just good enough that we got by with them. When we were in a smaller house and the entertainment center was right there, it was easier to put on music more often. But it’s been almost 11 years now of living in our new house and it’s steadily gotten to be more and more of a pain to listen to music. The old components don’t have a remote control so you always have to go over there and fiddle with it by hand. Before the kids, I’d make an effort to do it but with the kids around it just became too much of a hassle.
I let Ariel talk me into going to a high end audio store in Palo Alto called The New Audible Difference and after spending about 3 hours listening to music, I emerged with a NAD T765 receiver and some Revel F12 speakers. I ripped my CD collection to disk and put them on the Mac mini in the office and bought a Squeezebox and now we can control the sound system from any laptop using a web page.
The TV and receiver arrived a couple of weeks ago, the Squeezebox came in last week and the speakers finally arrived today. It is amazing how much more enjoyable it is to listen to music and watch TV now! I can’t believe that I waited this long to upgrade our sound system. Now I fear that I’m going to have to wire up the rest of the house with speakers.. this could be a very expensive experience 
