ll not bother -- even your 'phantom' center switch is going to sound better than that." Damning high-end audio because it aspires to be better than "good enough" seems a perverse stance someone in the business of selling/installing high-end home theaters. When Russ for puts down high-end audio because it's "product-driven," I've got to wonder just where the heck he's coming from. And he's got a lot of gall singling out high-end audio manufacturers for "pricing their best gear at stratospheric levels." Get with the program! High-end products are expensive, be they cars, boats, watches, audio or home theater gear. I do agree with you, however, that -- by any rational standard -- they're all overpriced. But there's a market for designs that advance the state of the art. And the best news is that there are plenty of truly outstanding products in those categories that won't break the bank. I just read about a pair of $299 speakers (Acoustic Energy Aegis Ones) that were awfully good; with them I could easily put together a credible high-end system for less than $1000. Outstanding products come in every price range. High-end audio companies regularly offer updates and upgrades to older models, so an all-out attack on the high-end press and manufacturers confounds me: "Most spend nearly all of their time and editorial space talking about gear. New gear. More gear. Expensive gear. Gear that completely humiliates what you bought last year." Huh? I'd say the home theater market is far guiltier of banishing old formats and abandoning its customers. How many thousand dollar projectors and TVs that won't accept progressive signals are still being sold today? (Answer: the vast majority.) And how about those $15K projectors that gobble up $1K light bulbs every year or so? What will the million or so laserdisc owners do when Pioneer stops making LD machines? And how about those folks who just dropped a bundle on a Dolby Digital receiver only to find tha...
