Relaxation

I've alluded to it before, but let me go ahead and use this post to discuss one of my "other" hobbies; which is home audio/home theater. I've been involved with it for a very long time mostly due to my dad's interests. As I was growing up, my dad had a nice German console system made by Telefunken. It was similar to this:

....but not exactly. Anyway, I spent a lot of hours listening to it and learned to love not only the music, but the equipment as well, especially after I got old enough for dad to let me operate it! By the time I reached junior high/high school age, that old tube system had died the death of "no longer available" tubes and we had moved on to the 70's world of Japanese components.

At that point, I was working in my mom's restaurant part time and started buying my own components with my own money. Of course, I was around a bunch of geek Chinese grad students (as well as my own super-geek college-aged brother), so my taste ran a little more sophisticated than my classmates at school. The first piece I bought was a Radio Shack (Kenwood contracted) receiver that was not only a very cool black (rare in those days when only professional gear came in black), but had a remote control! It looked something like this:

Of course, over time, equipment has come and gone. This was especially true of my late 20's and 30's when I was working professionally, but not yet married much less with children! It was such a part of my life and I so regularly "hung out" at a local stereo store that one of the salemen was in my wedding and is still one of my best friends! Eventually, I'd even have a part time job there while I was working IT at Texas Tech.

During that time, I learned the principals behind buying and selling technology without "loosing your shirt" since although I was young, single and working.....I was a teacher and didn't have the disposable income of a lawyer or doctor. Even handicapped, I learn when and where to buy well enough to get myself into nice separates, esoteric components as well as what sounds good, what doesn't, how components work together to make good sound and that it often didn't have a lot to do with amount of money spent or brand! I also learned when to get out of technologies before the price dropped so much that my stuff became worthless. A good example was my collection Laserdiscs that I sold for around $5 each before we left Chicago. Within a year after that, they were worth less than half that!

With all the "horse trading" over those years, I did luck out in that I never sold off my (and my dad's) collection of vinyl records. In fact, with modern equipment, those old records never sounded better. Plus there is a great relaxation as well with all the rituals associate with their use.

Currently, my vintage Dual 510 belt-drive turntable equipped with a Grado "Gold" cartridge is the center-piece of the serious sources in my system.

In fact, I'm sitting here listening to it "as we speak", so to speak. It along with an Integra CD Changer, Yamaha Minidisc deck, Griffin iPod dock, Sony Blu-ray player, and self-built A/V PC, comprise the bulk of my system. The iPod gets the majority of use since it holds our entire library of music, the Minidisc is for when I'm feeling like a rebel and want to be completely different than anyone else and of course the other pieces are obvious. But when I'm serious about relaxing, its the turntable plays "pure stereo" only through the Integra DTR6.3 reciever, KEF IQ7 speakers and B&W ASW675 sub.


Those are the biggies as far as amazing sound production for the money is concerned. I'll get into the tedious details of their acquisition some other time, but surfice to say that none of it was bought at anywhere near retail. There are other parts of course; such as the Blu-ray that handles the video end of the theater experience, and the HUGE Sony 200 Disc DVD changer that holds all the kids' movies so they don't have to handle them. One of the nice things about this is that the remote that came with that changer also controls the TV as well, so that's their remotes so they only need to learn and deal with it.

Our course these days, there's the inevitable game system (Wii for us), but a more interesting part of this system that will be subject to future posts is the "2nd Zone" built into the receiver so that it can distribute sound and sources to a remote zone. I've been accumulating parts for this over the years and it's about ready to be put together as we.

Right now, I'm just sitting here with the computer in my lap blogging about relaxation on a nice Easter Sunday afternoon with an old Fleetwood Mac Rumours record spinning on the turntable.

Remotes Galore!

I should be obvious by now that I have a few obsessions! Computers in general, ThinkPads in particular, digital storage ranging from little portable HDDs/iPods to home servers and the like. Of course, these are all computer oriented, but there's also the age old love for audio, both equipment as well as the music. However, given our current state of limited space and of course disposable income due to being teachers and having children, creates a set of circumstances that make remotes an almost ideal target.

REMOTES, you say!?! What the......!!! Well, they are small, electronic, can be pretty darned sophisticated, and best of all they fit in my budget! They are awesome! For anyone with a decent number of electronic devices (particularly home audio/video), we all have remotes coming out our ears and we end up having to use multiple ones of them every time we try to do things no more complex than watch a movie.

Thus enters the Wal-Mart (or Philips) "universal" remote for somewhere between $15 and $25. However, these things are rarely if ever as customizable as we'd like and there's always some key component that aren't part of their "universe", so we go back to using the multiple remotes and looking longingly at the Logitech Harmony line that starts at close to $100 and moves up to $400. Ouch! and if you are like me, you'd probably wouldn't buy it even if you could afford it. So, what to do?

Unbeknownst to most people, we are living in the "Golden Age" of used sophisticated remotes. Most folks are unaware that the super-remotes began appearing around 8-10 years ago. The boom was so big that Micro$oft got into the act by partnering with Harmon International to create the TC1000.

This device was designed to go head-to-head with the "Pronto" created by the remote jugernaught, Philips. Although they were both pricey at the $300+ price-point, they were FAR and-away cheaper than what touchscreen/universal/learning remotes had been before (think north of $1000)! To make a long story short, Philips won out; they and others have gone on to produce increasingly sophisticated remotes with even more memory, although not really any greater functionality.

So, how did I get involved with these ridiculously expense devices? Back in those days, I had a part time gig with an Audio/Home Theater store in Lubbock and we sold them. Of course it was love at first sight of the blue-green touchscreen (what geek wouldn't)! However, since I had that extra job so we could pay for our first house/first baby, a $300-400 remote was out of the question, even at the "salesman accommodation" of half off. But, what the job gave me was access to all manner of obsessive AND well-healed folks who bought things simply because they were new and interesting. And quite often, they would be happy to trade their old stuff for things as long as they it was different. So; as a result of some long-forgotten convoluted trade, I came to own a TC1000! It turned out that I didn't like its function very much and the interactive programming software was buggy (imagine first generation MS software being buggy), so it was traded or sold off. Around that time-frame we were looking to move away from Lubbock and find teaching jobs close to Dallas, so I was in the process of selling equipment and not acquiring it. Over the course of the next few years, that was the case since, first we were in a small rent house, then came the second child, along with having a new home built.

A couple of years ago, finally the time came to rebuild my audio/home theater system. As always, I did my due diligence and found some good deals on equipment through eBay and the local Craig's List. Of course, I mostly stuck with what I knew and bought a nice Integra (Onkyo's "Lexus" line) receiver that had a Phono input, BUT was missing its remote. So there it is; we finally get to the part were I give myself license to get into the world of remotes!

First, let me start by saying that (not just in my opinion, but reviewers and other sales folks as well) that Onkyo/Integra remotes are routinely considered some of the very best designed on the market, but they tend to sell for somewhere north of $60-75, even on eBay! So it was like mana from heaven when I came across a "CHAD" on eBay that I managed to snag for around $45 complete with charging stand. In case you didn't know, the CHAD is the Onkyo version of the Philips Pronto that I'd always coveted! Awesome, BUT (there's always a "but"), I found that the "Holy Grail" wasn't all that its cracked up to be (at least for me). Apparently I don't enjoy using a touch-screen as much as I thought I would. Its great for when I'm using multiple things in the system, but for a quick zap-zap, they're kind of a pain to use. Plus, I haven't yet gotten into the full customization of the unit yet through the computer software.

Along the way to nirvana, there've been some "deadends" and "not-quites" as well. First there was the Sony RM-AV3000 (above left), then recently the Denon RC-770 "Unimote". They are both of the hybrid "hard-buttons"+LCD. I found both to be limiting and not any easier to use than the fully LCD CHAD. However, we found that my wife really likes the Sony so it lives by her chair. Its a huge plus if you (like me) have lots of Sony equipment (virtually all my video components are Sony).

What to do? I had a bunch of partially programmed remotes that kind of did the job, but was still using multiple units when I was doing something serious like watching DVD or Blu-ray home theater. Part of the problem was that since I didn't have the original remotes for the receiver or the Integra 6-Disc CD changer, they both had functions that weren't in the "universal" code sets of even the CHAD. So it was very difficult to put function buttons from different remotes on to one screen to alleviate the need to jump back and forth between device screens. My other issue is that last year, I finally pieced together a system for our master bedroom which also needed some sort of integrated remote to cut down the clutter on my nightstand. The answer came in a pair of original Onkyo/Integra remotes. The correct remote is very hard to find since there's a tremendous variety of them, plus you have to find it after you find the right model number! First I was able to find an Onkyo RC484m (Left) cheap on eBay, but it turned out to be for the integrated DVD/Receiver unit and didn't have all the buttons needed to run my main system. Then I found the ONE, an Integra RC514m (right), for $24 on eBay! Although it was originally intended to run the next model up than my receiver, it worked find for mine as well. Since they are both programmable, as well as having the original Onkyo/Integra codes, I've been able to get all my devices into them. And, both are "hard-button" remotes, so they are easy to just grab and use; even for guests!

I've programmed the RC484 for the bedroom and have it set up to run the Onkyo receiver, Integra DVD player and the Olevia TV. The RC514 is set up for the main system in the living room that runs 6 components (for now)!

Here's the Frugal part: I've found that these sophisticated universal/programmable remotes can often be found around $20 (plus or minus a few $s) on eBay! If you're interested in playing with a programmable touch-screen, look for an older version of the Philips Pronto which are often well below $50. Hybrid LCD-hard button remotes like the Sonys can be had for even less (often sub-$20). A great example is the Sony RM-AV2100b (above) that I picked up on eBay for less than $15 shipped. Its an older version of the Sony AV3000 that my wife uses that has basically the same functions. The bonus is that the Sony TV code-set that it comes preprogrammed with is the same that my Westinghouse LCD TV uses in the office. It was sold without any instructions etc., so you might have to do some research since these are often sold off after having sat around for a number of years.

iPods

I know this is a little "off-beat" for me, but I've been feeling a little "off" anyway, so why not! I've actually been involved with iPods for a while.... just as soon as they stopped being status symbols and became viable daily use items for us normal people.

Yup, I know; compared to most of my stuff (eg. Vinyl, CD, and even MiniDisc), it doesn't sound very good, but NOTHING compares with the storage capacity and flexibility. A few years ago, my wife was giving me "the signal" that she'd like to have one and even new at $250, it wasn't too bad, so she got it for Christmas.....which led to me spending the rest of my break loading our entire library of CDs on it! However, I must say that nothing is quite as convenient when leaving on a trip than just grabbing that thing and heading out the door....with our entire library of music. Not too long after, she wanted to have another one to put all her school stuff on so it'd be separate and easy to find.

That's when I got into the used iPod end of things. You know; the things don't break very often, so there's a bunch of them out there and if its not a current model they'll sometimes fall all the way down to something like $100 or so. I got her a white one (since her other one was black) for about $125 and everything was great. These were both the 5.5 Generation iPod "video" versions.

Then about a year later, we were getting ready to go to Alaska and of course, I needed to take a laptop to dump my digital photos, but I also wanted to make absolutely certain that those photos were backed-up as well. Thus entered my iPod; a black (of course) Generation 6 "Classic" with 80Gb capacity that I picked up locally on Craig's List for around $175.

Things have gone along pretty well for our stable of iPods, but recently, I was asked to take it to the "next level". My sister-in-law was coming in from Germany and along with her came 2 older iPods (1 Gen. 3, 1 Gen. 4) in need of repairs sent by my "lover of all things Apple", brother-in-law. Both had problems and I was to see if I could fix them economically, but if not, then they didn't need to go back.

Of course, they obviously needed to have their batteries replaced AND the 3G one needed a new hard drive as well since the one in there was "clicking". I've never been down this road before, so it was a little tense when I got the battery I ordered off of eBay and started to take the 4G apart. First time through, was a no go. Like the novice I was, I put the plug on backwards and it wouldn't charge. The second time though worked like a charm! So for 20 minutes of time and $5.35 expended; apparently, I'm in the iPod repair business!

Now...when the box of broken 3G parts that I bought on eBay for $10 show up next week, we'll see if I've really got any skills! Its not really worth fixing, but I love a challenge...especially if its something new I haven't tried before.

The "Equation"

OK: there's no real equation that I use to determine what projects to do and what not to do. In most cases, its easy since there's no good way to mess up buying a know quantity like a Dell laptop for $150 and selling it for $250. Or finding a machine at a certain price-point that already has a buyer who wants it at price-point + $25-50. But for a Frugal Propellerhead's own projects, you really have to constantly evaluate since its a sliding scale and often something done "on-the-fly". This is really a good "case study" for what many people run into when dealing with a hobby and having something turn into a "money pit" and a cause of frustration and friction. So, let me walk you guys through this case:

• Found an Alienware Area-51 M7700 (largely complete with the exception of battery, hard drive(s), a/c adapter) for $171 on Goodwill Auctions.


• Made a mistake (kind of), since this particular Goodwill seller put in "shipping to be calculated after auction". On the surface, this didn't look like much of an issue since Goodwill is typically pretty reasonable on this and when this appears it usually means that the seller is going to calculate based on actual charges to the buyer's location. Little did I know that these knuckleheads would calculate shipping from South Carolina to Texas to be about $50! This puts the project at $221, although not too bad for what it was, this takes away room for error making it not nearly as good of a deal than if the costs would have been something more typical such as $25 or so.


• Bought, a/c adapter, and a battery on eBay for around $40 total putting me at a totaling pushing $275 now and still needing a HDD caddy and adapter cable, which should cost me another $35-45, meaning that my total will end up in the $325 range.


• This is were analysis comes into play. If you'll do a little research by checking eBay "sold" prices, you'll find that the $325+ range is into the fully-working versions of that model, AND I'd be there w/o having it completely "up and running".


• The next concept to analyze is how to move forward from here. I can find the other parts and finish, find parts through the acquisition of a "parts" machine, get the project working and sell off the remaining parts to recoup the costs. In relation to this, I found another M7700 with similar issue here locally for $150. The outlay at this point would be around $475! This is not only in the fully working range, but into the fully working next NEWER MODEL range. Let's just say that this isn't a place you want to be with a "fun" project since I'll categorize this as being NOT FUN due to fiscal irresponsibility.


• AND this isn't even discussing the possibility that I wouldn't be able to resolve the issues (eg. inconsistent POSTing) without spending more money!

So.....WWYD? As for me, I'm leaning toward gettting out of this situation while I can and will most likely be able to get back what I've put into it already. I'd probably be able to get out for about a $50 penalty. Let's just say that it's "lesson learned"!

What It's Like to be Single

I thought it'd be amusing to do this from Starbucks with my cup of coffee (just coffee), imagining that this is what a Monday evening might be like if I was still single or at the very least w/o children! But actually, I'm indulging because I just dropped Josh of at Cub Scouts and have about 30 minutes to "gather wool" till I have to go and get him. Going to Starbucks with a computer and blogging is really only interesting if you don't have the ability to do it regularly. If I could do it every day, I probably wouldn't do it since it wouldn't be of any value at all. ....by the way; the X300 is virtually the perfect companion for an outing like this. As far as progress with my projects are concerned; there's nothing to report. I haven't done anything to the Bondo stage of "Dig Dug" yet. Maybe I'll add another layer later. I did get the locking bar for the keyboard ribbon cable for the Alienware and it didn't help. In fact, it now won't boot at all....just a "black screen", so that's pretty depressing which hasn't help my unusually pensive mood.

In the Beginning.....

There was plastic with paint on it and it wasn't too good. So, after the disassembly which took a while, my procrastination, which too longer, here is the beginning of the work on "Dig Dug". Yup; I named his machine after the age old video game from the 80's. Inspiration from my friend Eric, but I'll get into "why" some other time.

That is the graphic that I'm going to order for it to replace that horrid strip of aluminum and round "Notebook" badge on the lid. Here you can see the pictures of what it looks like when I started doing a little sanding to see how thick the paint is, and what sanding that areas where the badge was is going to be like.

Here are the two bezels (KB & Screen). As you can see, I've already gotten down to the light grey color of the plastic at the front of the KB bezel. Pretty ugly huh!?!

Here's the lid which you can see where the ugly aluminum strip and round badge was afixed. Below is a close up of the area that I intend to Bondo and make disappear; on top of which will go the Dig Dug decal after application of the color-shifting Green/Blue paint.

Stay tuned.....