Way back in the day, I fancied myself an amateur audiophile. I read the magazines and loved getting a new piece of stereo equipment and tinkering with it to get better sound.
I always operated on the low end of the high-end spectrum, buying stuff that was better than you could find at the chain stores but was entry-level for the serious guys with more money than sense.
Then the children came. At that point, I hit the pause button on buying electronics, so for 20 years or so, the industry has moved forward while I haven’t. I didn’t think it had moved quite as far as it has, however.
A few weeks ago, a friend started shopping for stereo equipment. Among his criteria was that he wanted something that would be functional for years to come and that sounded good. He also wanted something that wasn’t too complicated, he said several times. I figured he meant he didn’t want anything with too many buttons. I kind of felt sorry for his naiveté, actually. You buy the thing, take it home and plug everything in and go, right?
Heading to the store, we looked over an assortment of receivers and compared things like output power, the number and types of inputs and home-theater settings like 5:1 vs. 7:1. You now have to consider things such as how it will plug into your flat-screen TV, how many video games you will want to run through it and whether you want to plug them into the front of the unit, which is easier if you move the consoles around a lot, or the back.