On the other hand, I heart my sound & vision system. My new DVD/CD player came today from Richer Sounds. Like the amp/decoder (also from Mr. Richer’s emporium), it’s a Sony model. The whole system, including speakers, as it stands, cost 240 quid, which is a good deal.
Sony’s name speaks for itself, but what I like about their gear is that they’re so user-friendly, and the manuals (for once) are really comprehensive and helpful (rather than the usual badly-written sketches in several languages). For instance, the player was not automatically sending a 5.1 signal to my amp, but the manual pointed the way in seconds. I have so many issues with instruction manuals that this makes a big difference to me.
The new player is impressing me a fair bit. While the old player was perfectly acceptable, the Sony’s sound output has a definite edge. I am hearing things on my CDs I hadn’t heard before. The amp is not a powerful one (you couldn’t shake the walls with it, but in a residential setting, this isn’t a great idea anyway), but I love the complete ‘wall of sound’ I can get from the set-up, which includes a cheap-but-effective sub-woofer.
The sound from 5.1 movies is generally pretty awesome too. Next on my list of purchases, but I plan to wait a while for prices to descend, is a flat-screen TV that is HD compatible. I have a big, bulky, 28″ 16.9 TV here. It does the job pretty well. Already, 32″ HD-ready TVs are routinely going for 500 quid, so I think if I wait another 6-12 months, I’ll get something nice for even less. And my money’s on a Sony, I’m thinking. (The TV I have is a Thomson.)
I just listened to Hunky Dory by Da Bo, and I have to say, it sounded bloody terrific. (1999 remaster, in case anyone wondered.)
In other news, this just in: Chrissie has decided to move again. To where, exactly, she doesn’t know. But this place is too expensive for one person on a humble income, and too big for that matter. Somewhere else in London? Maybe, maybe not. I’m taking a fluid approach.