Upgrade, Part Deux

For those who keep up with the blog, a few entries ago I related the checkbook-emptying friendship I've developed thanks to my youngest son and school. Through his class and the bus route, he met a friend who led to a friendship for my wife and myself. Well, the guy owns a home theater company, and doesn't mind helping me choose what best fits my needs. As I said before, talk about friend with benefits, eh!

Well, after scoring a PS3, I finally got tired of having so many HDMI-capable sources (cable box, DVD player, XBox Elite, and PS3 now) with only a single input on my TV. So, I opt'd for an upgrade on my 12-year old receiver. Earlier this week, it arrived in and I spent an evening tearing apart my home theater rack, installing the new receiver, and rewiring everything. Gone is the rats nest behind the rack, and now it looks clean. However, when I went to calibrate the receiver (it comes with a calibrated microphone to pick up speakers, set distances, levels, etc.), it failed to pick up my subwoofer. So, I pull the sub out of the corner where its lived for the past 4 years, and was greeted to a dead power light. No standby, no power, nothing. I tried it on another outlet to no avail. Finally, I grabbed a screwdriver and took off the back. When I did, all I smelt was burnt something. Turns out sometime in the past, one of the mainboards inside went crispy.

Sooo...yesterday, I ordered up the replacement. Thankfully I have a very forgiving and understanding wife, and she OK'd the proper replacement for the room and speakers I have set up. On the recomendation of the expert, I went for a Velodyne MiniVee 10. The thingis only a foot on a side, but packs a 21 pound magnet and kicks out 2000W of power! Needless to say, I simply can't wait to get the thing installed and pop in Transformers on HD-DVD. On the positive note as well, if I get hit with kidney stones again, now I can just crank it up, take a seat, and forgo the lithotripsy.