Home Theatre Audio

It turns out that this blog is more about ranting than it is about wisdom. Perhaps I'm just a bitter old man, or maybe, just maybe I am wise beyond everyone else's comprehension. Nah, I'm just a bitter old man.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I purchased a 42" plasma TV, hooked up my antenna and voila HDTV. Of course, this spankin' new HDTV comes complete with dolby 5.1 audio. Here's the problem, now I need a new sound system.

In my basement I have a nice Yamaha amp hooked up to some Paradigm speakers. Unfortunately the speakers are too big for my family room (where the new plasma is), but the AMP will be perfect as I have 7 devices to hook up to it. So, I picked up a new Pioneer amp (around $200) to fill in in the basement, but I still need speakers.

BTW: The new Pioneer amp (VSX-517-K) sounds great with my Paradigm's, but I wish it had another optical digital audio in (it has two coax and one optical). Of course the store advertising it said it had two optical and one coax, but I digress.

Now, I could pick up some Paradigm Cinema series and corresponding sub-woofer, but I don't feel like spending $1000 on speakers right now, so I looked online for "inexpensive speakers". I found a set of Yamaha NS-SP1600's for $99 on eBay, with $45 shipping. The nice thing about these ones for this price is that it's a powered subwoofer (which is pretty much required for my amp). So, I read a few reviews and decide on these low end Yamaha speakers. Before you judge me, I know that these won't perform anywhere near the Paradigms and certainly are less than my Yamaha amp deserves, but I just can't spend $1000 right now.

So, I order the speakers (from NY, USA), they ship and yesterday they arrive...via UPS (in Ontario, Canada).

There is a COD charge:
$35 brokerage fee
$15 PST/GST
GST/PST on the brokerage fee
$5 customs.

So, in the end when it's all added up, the COD was $65 (yep, on $99 speakers).

So, let's add this up
Speakers $99
Shipping $45
UPS Fees $65

Now, if this eBayer had shipped via US Post instead, the COD would have been the $5 customs charge. I know this as I've had a lot of stuff shipped from the US and UPS gouges you at the border.

So, eBay people, if you are shipping to Canada, at least allow a different shipping option than UPS. UPS bites when crossing the border.

As for my new speakers, they sound much better than I thought they would, especially for $99. I just wish I didn't have to spend $210 to get my $99 speakers.