Steve K., I hear you... and all I can say is that people don't know what they are missing until they are shown (and hear) what they are missing.
When anyone auditions my setup they don't leave the same way they walked in. The funny thing is that size does matter because they see and hear everything and they think it's great, which at one time it was... but now the TV (a 61 inch Sammy DLP) is 5 years old and 720p and only 1,000:1 contrast... obsolete by today's specs, but that audio never chnages... that SVS subwoofer will punch you in the chest just like it did 5 years ago and will continue to punch people in the chest 5 years from now regardless how much the video changes.

You simply can't beat big speakers with big magnets producing clean big clear solid sound... Bose and those little cubes... paw-leeze!!!
I have a funny story about that, a guy I know has a Bose Acousticmass system and he came here and left in tears. Sound waves are sound waves and the physics of them can't be chnaged... you can try to fool your ears, but you ears will tell you you're the fool when you hear an audio system with big towers allowing the frequencies to be produced the way they were produced when the tracks were created in the first place. I personally consider the audio and the video on the same level and all rolled into the High Definition bundle. There is a difference between Surround Sound and Home Theater audio. The Bose Acousticmass systems are surround sound systems, but they are not even remotely Home Theater capable.

You mention $3K for audio gear... sounds reasonable to me. I just did some quick math on my stuff... speakers alone $5,000... receiver Yamaha RX-V2400 $1,100. You know, that would be a good poll question... how much for the gear we all have... one for audio then one for video or one for just the whole damn setup.

Dear Ben & Steve, but more Ben,
This refers to the round table discussion show and how Ben made the point regarding does anyone on the show have audio systems worth more than their displays?
The crickets were heard and it very much disturbed me because how can anyone claim to be a Home Theater or HD enthusiast when they regard sound so low on the scale?
How can HD and the HD movie experience not go hand in hand? The two are equally important to the HD experience and especially the HD movie experience.
Good sound quality matters, it doesn't have to be top notch, but it does have to be good and affects the Home Theater experience tremendoulsy... period.
A good solid receiver and a good center channel and beefy subwoofer are required. I currently use Yamaha, Klipsch RC-64 and SVS, respectively and never once have I regretted the money spent. I don;t have the tree in the backyard with $50's and $100's, but I did buy over the years the best of the middle area that I could afford, with a sprinkle of lower upper.
After that the front mains are next important and then the rear surrounds... which don't have to be all that great, just good.
What good is having a big HD screen with SD cloudy sound? It makes no sense to me.
Here's another thing to keep in mind, that audio system will be working just fine in 15 years... where will that HD display be in 15 years?
Don't skimp on the audio... specifically the speakers. They're the one thing that will keep on ticking regardless of what happens to the video.
Pay as much for speakers as you can afford because after that the only thing you have to ever change is the receiver, if you ever feel like it.
Thanks,
Steve Jr.

PS: Is anyone else seeing the cursor and this text box overlap on the right side with the ads and menus? Is it just me? Am I the only one typing across the list of Manufacturers right now?

CA$H CAB RULEZ!!!!! Terrance and Phillip will be most happy.

PS:
Again, what is with this new color scheme on the comments? Why do I as a returning poster have to switch the tab to RETURNING from the current default of NEW READER... I don't think so. I already earned the right to not have to switch the tab... RETURNING should be the default.

Also, this dialog box does not wrap inside the initial box, it just keeps going until it reaches the end of the screen and wraps then. And finally, the stupid thing is not remembering me even though I check it every time. Please tell the webmaster(s) to get their act together.

Thank you very much,
Steve Jr.

It's a nice upgrade, but honestly all anyone had to do was go to weaknees.com and beef up the drive there. I also agree that I really like the display too, if not OLED then why not LCD?

Anyway, we got our Series3 at the end of January 2007 with a 750 gig drive and haven't look back once. The TB drive was not out for another few months, but had it been we would have gone that route. It's amazing how much shit you can record once you get going and it does get to the point where you just don't watch half of it, but it's just so nice to have it ready at the touch of a few buttons. Thanks.

PS: The new web site change to these comments is not right, as I type this out the typing is not staying inside the box area and it going all the way to the end of the screen underneath the menu and advertising banner before it wraps around. Also, this gray area color change makes it look like I shouldn't be typing in this area... not good. Please tel them to fix this. Thanks.

Not have TIVO ??? There ain't no mother#@$%& way i would not have TIVO now.
A few weeks ago I just completed getting TIVO Series2 in the kitchen up and running.
Now all 4 TV's in the house have TIVO and the other 3 are HD units with 1 of them being a Series3.

PS: What's with the gray boxes on this page?
I hope this gets through and as I am typing the word wrap is not working.

***** TYPO FIX *****
The above post should read: "I know this ISN'T related to this show...".
I wish we could edit our own posts to fix things we notice later.

TYPO FIX.... above should be "I know this ISN'T related to this show".
I wish we could edit posts to fix typos.

I know this is related to this show, but I just got my TIVO update and I just love being able to toggle the Closed Captioning on and off without leaving the show and I can't believe this hasn't been like this all this time. Now if we can only get somebody's ear at TIVO to show a red dot or shade the show's box light red on the Guide Grid then we're cooking with oil. If they can show that little HD symbol then they can show a RED DOT or a lightly shade the box. Thanks.

Right, just like the cashless society and the paperless society too. Not to mention the flying cars and super highways that I can just let my car do the driving. The Jetson's here we come!!!

Hi Steve,

Reticence... ??? Wow you are wild. Do you actually use that word in everyday speak? Be honest, did you open the thesaurus on that one?
I guess using the word reluctance or unwillingness would be too hard to use in that sentence, huh? Whew...

I'm not asking for 4th grade, but come one Steve, I had to Google it to find out what the hell it meant and even then I ask why bother using such a term that's clearly way down on the list or words that we all use in our lives. Too funny. Thanks, Steve Jr.