Product Description

With this consumer's guide, buyers of home theatre systems will be taken through the technology and components of home entertainment and learn how they suit their individual needs. Consumers will discover the best components for their needs, how to be a savvy shopper, how to avoid buying the wrong technology, and how to set up and fine tune a system. In addition, all the technologies behind home theatre are explained. These technologies include DVD players, audio/video receivers, multichannel speaker systems, high-definition television (HDTV), and digital satellite systems.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1143842 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 252 pages

Wayne Thompson, The Oregonian
"This is the best guidebook we've seen on the subject."

About the Author
Robert Harley is the editor-in-chief of 'The Absolute Sound'. He lives in Tijeras, New Mexico.

Customer Reviews

A mixed bag of good information and tommyrot
Much of the information in this book is good, but a couple of issues need to be addressed. Tomlinson Holman, a good engineer, is the man behind both the THX professional cinema house certification and the Home THX certification program for home theater components. I have a substantial issue with, particularly, the latter because it consists of a secret set of parameters, which are divulged only to licensees under nondisclosure. Because the requirements are themselves secret, how can anyone judge their validity, or the comparative value of the certification?

Mr. Harley, on the other hand, is no engineer at all, nor even a hands-on amateur, but a promoter. He combines occasionally astute observations with technical nonsense, so that even when his conclusions appear to make sense you have no idea how he got there. Simply put, he often either doesn't know what he's talking about, or he does and is simply writing what equipment vendors and the gullible want said.

A Bargain at Twice the Price
When I went shopping for a home theater system I had many questions; Do you get more when you pay more for equipment?, Do I need the big wire (Monster Cables), What do all those letters like THX, DSS, HDTV, MPEG, really mean?

This book answers all those questions and a lot more. It should be titled, "All you really need to know about home theater." I figure that I have scrounged together a $15,000 system for about 1/2 that amount. When you know what you're looking for, you can get closeouts, discontinued models, etc and not get ripped off. I found that the information I had received in stores was sometimes close but sometimes dead wrong. When you finish this book you will not be at the mercy of uninformed sales people!

The book does get fairly technical but this is essentially a technical subject. Harley does a nice job of making it very understandable. The book is also very thorough as it covers every aspect of a home theater system.

I wished he had made more product recommendations but I can imagine that they would change frequently. I checked out his website and found that I could purchase up-to-date product reviews and recommendations for a few bucks; well worth it if you are about to spend from 3,000 on up on a home theater system.

This book is, as they say, a bargain at twice the price!

Absolutely Awesome!
Bought this yesterday 7/20/2002. Updated for the latest technology (e.g. THX Ultra 2 - 7.1 discrete channels), this book is pretty much all you need to help you through the complex maze of today's home theater. Not only did it help me understand the technology for the front projection system I'm design for a dedicated home theater system in the basement, it helped me understand more about my current HT set up. For example, I *finally* was able to fix that persistent buzzing noise that appears intermittently for the past several years in my front and rear loudspeakers. I also learned (to my great horror!) that my DVD player wasn't set up correctly, so all these years I thought I was listening to Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound (unless I was watching a rare DTS movie), I was actually listening to it in Dolby Surround! My gosh, a few menu items to change on my DVD player and my system went from sounding pretty damn good to completely awesome!

If there is anything missing from this book it's that I'd like to see a chapter on room design (e.g. room size, recommended projection screen size for viewing distance, more information on acoustic treatment, etc.) Otherwise, this is all you'll need for understanding all those home theater magazine reviews. Make sure you get the version that's been updated for 2002!