i decided recently to buy a new home audio solution for my home theatre. it has been a long time coming and now all of the components are finally at the house. they’ve actually been at the house for a while now. of course, no one has ever heard of anything that i got, i guess that’s the price you pay for going with non-big brand name gear.
the speakers i got are made by a company called definitive technology or “def tech” for those in-the-know. *wink, wink*
and the receiver that i got to drive it all is made by a company called outlaw audio. i know, i know, you’ve probably never heard of them. when i received my receiver, i was giddy as ever. but when i hooked it all up, i noticed some problems with the digital coax inputs. i kept getting pops frequently through DVD playback. what’s worse was that even with analog sources, i still heard the occasional pop. i dealt with customer support both online and via phone. online response time is about once a day and it was hard to troubleshoot a problem in this fashion as you would do one thing, wait a day, do one thing, and wait again. finally, i called their tech support while i was at home during a lunch break and was able to go through the troubleshooting process.
it was determined that i needed to get a new receiver, so they shipped me a replacement and it finally came. the replacement receiver sounds great with no more popping of audio. and now, finally, i can blissfully enjoy my new home audio solution. i do admit that i was watching the usual suspects just a little too loudly while i was demoing the unit because i just couldn’t help myself.
the one drawback to buying non-mainstream stuff is that when people hear that i’ve been doing all of this research and have spent a non-trivial amount of money on the new setup, if they ask me what i ended up getting and i tell them def tech speakers being driven by an outlaw audio receiver, i almost always get a blank stare, followed by the question “why didn’t you get a