Vicious circle

In some ways, this is related to my previous blog-post, but I decided to dedicate a separate post to this.

I have a dilemma. Every proper household needs equipment that can be used to listen to music. We (that is, Mrs. and I) have none. Which is ironic, considering that we own more music than we have ever owned before. What do we have? Well, we have two radios and a laptop. And those aren't really ideal for this purpose. Yes, you can play back music through the laptop-speakers. But can you really LISTEN to music with it? Add to that the fact that the laptop is not ideally located for music-listening.

So we need something to listen to our music with. First thing would be to buy some speakers. Of course we need something that will play back/store our music. For this use we are looking at something like AppleTV or maybe Playstation 3. PS3 costs more, but it also does more, and it could replace our old DVD-player as well. But anyway, I mention those just to give you an idea what I'm looking for.

So, so far we have the speakers and the actual playback-device. We might also need an amplifier, in which we will hook up the speakers and the playback-device (although Genelecs are active speakers, they do not need apmlifier as such). This is optional in the beginning, but might come handy if we (for some reason) get more devices that need to use the speakers/television.

Since we are talking about devices that will hold thousands of songs (and video), it needs to be hooked up to a television for proper usage. But the thing is that my TV is an older model that does not properly work with AppleTV and other devices like it. So I would have to get a new television.

Could someone tell me how and when this thing got so damn complicated?!

I have bought few stereos in my life. And the process was relatively simple and exciting. I read the reviews and compared products. I went to the store, bought the components I wanted, put them together and I was all set. Now, if I want to upgrade, I need to upgrade everything!

Excitement is still there, but simplicity is nowhere to be found.

Granted, this problem is caused by the fact that I'm still on "old" technology (that is, tube-televison) which doesn't work with the "new" technology. If and when I buy in to the new technology, things should work quite smoothly. That is, until something new and better come along.

I have been planning this upgrade for few years now, and I guess I will be planning it for some more time. But I try to aim for longevity. The television? I could get one of those "HD-Ready"-televisions quite cheaply. But I think that FullHD has more legs in the long run. For speakers, I want Genelecs. The thing with Genelecs is that they might cost more, but they are so good and high quality, that you might not need to replace the speakers for the next 30 years. And I can buy a pair now, and build the system up in the future.

But still, doing all this would mean spending thousands of euros! Sheesh! Back to the drawing-board it seems....