Surrounded

The title is actually a misnomer, which I'll explain momentarily, but for my purposes it's just as well. You see, as much as I like movies and music, I've never been much of an audiophile or home theater connoisseur in terms of having the latest and greatest equipment. Prior to last May, my 25" tube TV from 1995 was the best TV I ever had. And I NEVER used anything other than the built-in TV speakers. So when I moved, I went ahead and picked me up a 42" LCD TV (a refurb, so I didn't splurge or anything), but I was still using the TV speakers, which were mostly fine by me, because what do I know.

Well, to go along with the new-ish place, I've been slowly improving my home theater footprint, without breaking the bank. I've got the aforementioned LCD TV, there's an HTPC project going (another entry in and of itself, which I'll do when it's done), I picked up a nice receiver for Christmas, and as I happen to know the owners of the best speaker company on the planet (Oklahoma City's own Digital Designs), I've been eager to be an early adopter of their new home theater line of products.

Tonight my DD buddies came over with my new speakers -- the first time I've used external speakers for my TV/Movie viewing experience -- to help me set things up (because again, what do I know about this stuff). While I didn't ask for a full 5.1 or 7.1 setup (mostly because I didn't want to mess with that, but also the layout of the place isn't the most conducive for such a setup), thus the misnomer remark, I now have a 3.1 setup (front left and right, center, and sub) that is far beyond anything I've ever had. We played the Wii and watched a movie after the setup, and everything sounds AWESOME. Definitely a good move on my part. And now I'm more eager than ever to wrap up my HTPC build (which would give me a custom DVR and have my full digital music library playing through the new receiver/speaker setup).

So, while I don't technically have "full surround" (by choice), with my new setup I feel plenty surrounded with audio goodness. Thanks DD!