Home Theater Hacks

Hack #4. Buy in Person from Electronics Boutiques

An electronics boutique offers the advantage of in-person tryouts without many of the downsides of a larger chain store.

Most home theater enthusiasts realize that chain stores [Hack #3] rarely cut it, for either quality or selection. If you want more than a "home theater in a box," you're going to have to spend some money, and in that case, you deserve more than a too-bright, too-crowded chain store. In these cases, an electronics boutique is ideal.

Boutique stores are smaller stores, often on a side road, that specialize in home theater. You'll have to look for them; they often don't advertise as much, or have as much visible presence, as the Best Buys and Circuit Cities of the world. However, if you find a good boutique, you can easily become a customer for life.

Understand the Pricing Model

Before you walk into your first boutique, you should realize you are probably going to pay anywhere from 10% to 15% more on items than you would if they were in a chain store. Boutiques have higher overhead and less revenue, and they pass those (lack of) savings on to you. However, you have to realize many of the components in a boutique aren't available in chain stores, so this theoretical price increase becomes just that—theoretical.

If you want to pay the absolute lowest price for equipment, you're going to have to shop online [Hack #6] . But on the Internet, if you don't know exactly what you want and what to watch out for, it's easy to pay less for something that doesn't serve your needs. Some will urge a potential consumer to figure out what he wants at a boutique, write the items down, and then shop online. I have a real distaste for this; if you're going to spend several hours at a boutique (and you will, if you're serious about choosing the best gear), you've taken up valuable time for the owner and salesperson. I think it borders on outright dishonesty to then devalue the information and assistance they provided, buying the gear they helped you select from an anonymous Internet dealer. Realize that 10% of a purchase is more than warranted if you have a great salesperson who helped you find what you wanted, was patient with you, and gave you plenty of options.

Prepare First, Shop Second

Another important tip when shopping in boutiques is to go in prepared. You should have, at a minimum, the following items written down.

Room dimensions

This is one of the single most important preparation tasks. If you don't know the room size, including ceiling height, you really handcuff even the best salesperson. Speakers perform completely differently based on the size, shape, and structure of a room. This information is invaluable in a good boutique providing you a tailored system.

Room construction

Detail whether your room is an interior room or an exterior room. Know the difference between a wood-framed house and manufactured housing. You also should note the location and size of windows, doors, eaves, overhangs, and anything else that could affect where you place speakers.

At a minimum, I need…

This is your list of desired applications. Don't worry about detailing that you want a receiver, DVD player, CD player, and so forth. Instead, list the uses you want your theater to serve—movie playback, watching cable TV, listening to CDs. If you want to listen to surround-sound music, let your salesperson know; on the other hand, if that's really not a big deal, know that going in. Additionally, let your salesperson suggest the equipment, unless you're really sure of what you're doing.

Budget

Although this might sound pedantic, it's really frustrating to spend hours with a customer showing him incredible systems, and then as you talk price, he mentions he wants to spend only $1,500 on a complete system. Know what you can spend, and let your salesperson know up front. She can pick better systems, and ensure you can afford what you hear.

Shop for the Complete Package

One of the biggest advantages of a boutique is that they usually offer installation services and even equipment calibration. Although this is going to cost money (doesn't everything?), it can be a huge advantage to have the people who sold you your equipment install it. They know the gear inside and out, and they might even offer you a discount if you buy equipment and let them install it. Additionally, if something goes wrong, you're not on the line; the people who sold the equipment are the ones who have to deal with it.

Another real advantage to this approach is that you often can swap out equipment if something goes wrong. If your boutique installers get to your house and realize something isn't going to work, they'll likely allow you to exchange the gear for something else that works. Finally, if you forgot to get that one component video cable, or if you run out of speaker cable, a boutique can take care of these little details easily.