Hello, friends, we, as mostly men, we have to excuse ourselves and accept our female counterparts into this Guide as well and break that "Glass Ceiling" so we can all join in the Consumer "Reindeer Games" of choosing home components and blasting sounds from our components or even televisions and widescreens now, but, I want to concentrate on a sound system for now.

   Firstly Q.) What do I recommend? Components or single all-in-one units called Entertainment centers?

A.) I always liked the choice of getting whatever suits you at your time of purchase. I would start off  "NOT"  buying or investing into a complete system of, CD, DVD, Tape Cassettes,VHS-VCR's, records, amplifiers, pre-amps, speakers,...the all in one system! NO, NO, NOOO! I would  N~E~V~E~R  put my money into a complete system!

Q.)Why not?

 A.) If one of the accessories go down for the 10 count, you can have it shipped off to the factory for them to fix for a few hundred buckers, or if you were twerp enough, then you bought into their three-year protection plan, which would be a big-buck policy as it costs much for a tech to put the time in to fix a mess of systems in one..they would just throw it out as most do rather than pay a technician $60.00 per hour (cheap!) and send the "Clown Family" a new set or tell you that the model went by way of the dinosaurs and talk you into another useless system!

Q.) Then you are for separate components, right? So, where is your best dollar, Yen, centavo, moolah, jingle, or money spent?

 A.) I think: Which format will most likely be here in five-ten years?  A Beta-Max? Beta Tape system? 8-Tracks? VHS-VCR's? Records? Cassettes? Reel-to-Reels?A receiver? Tuner? CD's? DVD's? Tubed amplifiers? Transistor systems? Well, God knows as I still have them all but, I only put one 8-track in a 1966 Buick Riviera back in 1970 or so,  and out of sight in the glove compartment!

Q.) So, in a true component set what do you feel is the more important items in which to invest?

A.) I am glad to hear the word: "Invest", for this is what you are doing. I would put my best dollars into, a Top-Shelf Amplifier, which was once Marantz, always better than most, then you are to look at the formats that are going to survive, if possible, into the 2020's. And, I believe that what is small and inexpensive will make it there, along with a laptop or a computer, which can be used to get rid of all of the Cassettes, tapes, records, VHS-VCR's, and most formats will allow you to change over to only CD's for your sounds, music, pictures, writing, doing legal papers,or any documents will be transferrable into a CD and DVD's will be your first and foremost in TV's and /or Video viewing of anything!

   In finality, 1.) I would build a system like this: A solid amp, even if used, I use two (2) 1060 Marantz Amplifiers, (one I bought for a tune on eBay)!  I use one amp for one side (right or left) and that can be the two lefts and two right speaker cabs.and if you have a choice whether to put your money into speakers or amplifiers...invest in what will give you the sound in it's purest form... S~P~E!A~K~E~R~S~!~!~!

   Put  the most money you can afford into the speakers, and they do NOT have to stand like a Bassist Stack (My Bass stack is 7' tall and puts out nearly 1000 watts at 8 ohms (resistance) to 18" speakers, 3-15" speaker Cabinets, 15" & 10" w/ 4" horns. And, one thing you will begin to find more and more are lower resistances to the speakers which will allow MORE wattage to each speaker cab. and what is now being used in producing music, is: Instead of the standard 8 ohm. amps and speakers, which resists a lot of watts (sound) down to the speakers. But! Why resist sound?~?~? Don't you wish to hear more at a "lower number" on the volume dial???

 So "they", from the United States Dept. of  "THEY" are using 4 ohms systems, which resists more of all resonances to the speakers, so, if 4 doubled, (m.o.l.) the Watts to your system, then what about 2 ohms??? Won't it resist less from "shaking hands" with your speaker systems?~?~? Yes, it will, and if you started off with about 100 Watts @ 8 Ohms ( or 10 ohms or 16 ohms resistance) Then with 4 ohms you produce 200 watts to your speakers, and now with 2 ohms resistance, you produce about 400 ohms resistance to your speaker cabs.(All with the same amplification)!~!~! Now...that thinking will grow as far down the road as I can see!

    So far, your investments are going first (1st) to speakers of the best kind, so they can handle the extra wattages put out by a 4 or 2 ohm resistence system and the ohms at the amp must match the ohms at the speakers. Your speakers MUST be hooked up in Parallel and NEVER in Series, for with a Parallel, the speaker will all togetherbe the same OHMS and never resist more that the amp's Ohms output and all will be right in the Universe!

    One of the more important things are speaker wire and all of the connections that you hook your components together with.

1.) The speaker systems should be put together with a slightly larger wiring and do NOT use cheap wiring, go for the best wiring you can beg, borrow and steal~!

2.) If 12 Ga. wire comes with the system, use a smaller gauge which is a thicker wire, such as 16 ga. wiring.

3.)All connections (as my Bass / Guitar systems are: "Monster Cables") which a heavily insulated inside and the outside insulation uses a silicone type substance to insulate your wires inside of the outside insulation and all connections should be "GOLD TIPPED" or gold plated" as Gold is a very fine conductor and sound is so clean that no hissing, popping, static from weather, changes of you indoor and outdoor weather will least affect your sound from your speaker systems. GREAT~~~ PURE sound!

4.) Now, one by one, you would at this time realize that CD's, DVD's are the format to be around the very longest, and I have watched all of the formats, one by one fall to the wayside, and have refused (after I invested into Sony Beta Systems), because the tapes were better than VHS-VCRs by a real long shot, but, what happened was that most of the good shows on TV were at least an hour long, and Sony did NOT produce an one hour or longer tape for a year or two after VHS-VCRs made longer tapes first and beat Sony out of the Tape race, and when Sony finally produces the 4, 6, and 8 hour tapes, it was too, too late as VHS, got to the one-hour minimum for taping the favorite shows of the spenders of the U.S. Monies: the females, who found their families in a recession/depression during the hey-days of the Republican Party

   They had to get two (2) Pays, at least, into their homes, so watching soap Operas for years and years, they wanted a tape that could tape 3 or 4 shows in a row...that race was won by the VCR companies, who first held out the first 120, 160 and 180 legnth tapes...while Sony, who owned the Beta Tape Patents Alone, finally got the tapes out too late as I had said before,  the public knew that Beta were better producers of sound and picture reproduction, but the machines were bought and the race was lost to the VHS-VCR MFG's.  It was too, too late, as the public went out and just had to buy the VHS models rather than the very much better reproducing Beta Tapes...Betas stood around for some years as I owned both, but swore that I would NEVER fall for that  formats anymore! I would wait until I was real darned sure that  I would (remember the word?) invest into who and what would be around for a long, long time.

   So, now, I have figured, first, great connections ...all as Gold as they can be, with heavier duty wiring, into each speaker and now, set up your CD player, then your DVD player into the back of your amp, then a nice receiver/tuner for you radio freaks, and most are good and will never give you any trouble, now, finally...I invested in a five disk CD player for my music, which will be converted and hooked into my computer for changing my cassettes, Tapes (VHS-VCR), as you could listen to music stations without a picture so many VHS machines were used for just music.

   You can , if you don't have money for a 5-6 or more CD player, get a single disk player, (as I have two (2) small CD box Players in different rooms), so I'll have them, and a CD and DVD in my computer, but, for the component, go for a moderate system, but, a good one, and do NOT forget! Now, you set these into the back of  your amp. use the same larger wiring and gold tips for the connections also.

   So, now whatever unit you may have or are planing to put into a component set to be converting all of your past audio and video entertainment into CD's and DVD's...there will be those who for some reason like MP3 music, which can be letters, notes, or a greeting for your nieces anniversary, they will install them into the amp, just like all else...into a 4 or 2 ohm (hardly no resistance at all) system.

    So, you and I will always figure how to add an item into our component system, as I have two record players (turntables) with direct drive and adjustable turntables as I sell only the finest and most collectable 78's, 45's, and 33-1/3 RPM Vinyl records from the fifty years that I have been collecting these Items, so, first I looked into eBay and waited for the units that I wanted the most, and though I paid for the shipping I begged for my turntable to be delivered by UPS Ground, who now have a written policy to hand over to the next delivery truckdriver all packages he can carry, while the  U.S.POSTAL SERVICE, still have their football and basketball  games and you have seen them yourselves, I am sure!

    So, there is the plan, all for those who wish to undertake the job...it is simple if you remember the standards set forth in this, the "Ol' Bassman's" Guide for setting up a sound (audio) and/or video system today and not get the wind to come along and as "Tevya" said in "Fiddler on the Roof"..."if you spit into the air, it will return to hit you in the face"!...

    Oh, yes, it is true, as my wife says, all she hears from me at night is me cussing and grumbling the word:"Betas...Betas"...eight tracks- "Betas"!...(groan, ...burp, ...gaaasssssss!) Good night, Barb!

Thank you from:

Rick "Fourstrings" Lauzon

AKA: eBay User ID: "Tatonka-i-e"

Lehigh, FL.

an produce the lowest resonance (30 to 50 Hrz.) and the highest (50-75 M Hrz) or higher. The speakes that are better and handle the most Wattage (RMS only), which means that this is the power to the speaker cabinets or wall/shelf speakers will be clearer, stereo, or possibly have what engineers use now ...a many-tracked unit which can separate all instruments from voices or down to a single voice and stay at the same pitch so if you play a musical instrument you can slow down the music, the pitch will remain in the same pitch so there is noneed to transpose into a lower octave or any other tricks.