Today I replaced my dear old Yamaha DSP-A1, with… another Yamaha! It’s the RX-V3800 (yes, an Amazon link for the Americans.. buy! Buy!), which does many wonderful things, most importantly it lets me use my old technology with the projector, so I can finally play my PS2 games again. Guitar Hero fights with M1k3y, ahoy!

Audio Trends was having a 20% off sale, so I got the amp, a pair of Klipsch RS-10 Surround speakers, a pair of HDMI cables and 10 metres of speaker cable for a little less than the amp itself would normally set me back. I’m streaming Dusty Springfield from the Mac as I type - sounds fine, just fine.

I can also switch between the DVD player and PS3 without yanking cables, which is a huge improvement. By the way, the guy from Audio Trends tried to sell me the expensive HDMI cables. I told him there was no way I was spending $60 on a 1.5m cable (after he had already dropped $15 from the price tag). He told me I could buy cheaper, but they were rubbish. I said that in my experience, as long as a digital cable was properly assembled, they’re all the same. I bought a 1.5m cable at Jaycar for $30 - still too much, but I wanted something immediately. And guess what, it works perfectly well. As does the $50 3m cable (instead of the $130 cable from Audio Trends).

The old amp had three VCR inputs, the new one has only the one, plus a DVR input. The new amp also drops the LD connection, which means I can’t play Dolby Digital from the laserdisc player. Oh well.

So, after 10 years I finally got the front effect speakers that I always liked the idea of… and I’m in the least acceptable home theatre room in 10 years - totally bloody square! Never mind, the speakers will make a properly-shaped room really open up.