Hifi

This home theater took two months to complete. 4 wall mounted lights were fitted, electical rewiring done for optimal clean power to system components and acoustical treatments lined throughout the room. Sound dampening pink panther insulation added to the basement ceiling.
A few electical and phone sockets were added and carpet layed in.
Home Depot turned into my second home since constuction work was new to me. Styling cues were done by my mother who is a part time artist.

   Speakers were my main concern as there are an abundant amount of brands to choose from. I was looking for a pair of front channels and hopefully a matching center for the surround ensemble.
Having demod around 10 pairs of speakers with various types of amplification I settled on a pair of Acoustic Energys.
     Thourough comparison was done with Paradigm Active 40s which were near my price range. The Paradigms were by far more accurate and detailed but lacked in the imaging and finess acustomed to good music reproduction. Active 40s were more geared towards hometheater than 2channel. The AE's however had more potential attaining the same characteristics further down the road when better amplification and source units are used.
     Since I was choosing a speaker for 2channel and hometheater, it was very difficult to find an affordable pair to suit both worlds. Speakers for the price of $2k CND would just ease me into decent bookshelfs, but as for many bookshelfs, full frequency range reproduction is very limited since low frequency is lacking. So naturally a floorstanding larger speaker would be more well rounded. But with deminished sonic qualities as the costs are spent on size rather than sound. Many home theater oriented floorstandings had powered subs with boomy bass, which is horrible for Stereo.
    Then I was shown a pair of Acoustic Energys which were drastically discounted and hoped my needs would be fullfilled when I brought it home for demoing.
These speakers have smooth clear highs, bass is fairly accurate, imaging is quite defined and they look very elegant for slim floorstandings.

Rotel is well known for their affordable mid range priced amplifiers. Having rolled out a new home theater integrated amp in the year 2000 the 972 has had great success. However it does lag in the dynamic feel of say a equal priced Denon unit for hometheater sound. Stereo performance on the other hand is very naturally and smooth. For the price this would be the choice for audio enthusiast and the Denon for hometheater performance.
This unit isn't quite as user friendly as the Japanese rivals but hopefully the compromise is towards better sound.
I have a 13 by 22 feet room and the amplifier fills it quite nicely with the AE 520. All the connections you'll ever need are available but it is lacking a switching ability for it's video sources from Svideo to Component for example. That is being nitpicky however as the better route would be direct connevtions to the video display.

Amplifiers-integrated or seperates? that is the question. obtaining seperates will enable you to upgrade the pre amp or power amplifier itself. The pre amp is used as a unit where sources are inputed, eg cd player, tape deck, tuner, record player or 8 track...well maybe not. The pre amp will not amplify sound hence the suffix "pre" or before amplifier. The preamp enables you to choose the source to listen to and also contains the volume control as well as speaker on/off switches if any. Certain brands will support the unit with remote control as this is a very important convenience in the world of couch potatoe mood audio enthusiast. It could also save your speakers from being blown by all the Metallica being played.
Balance controls and bass/treble knobs might also be provide to fine tune to your desires or to the room. Which we'll get into later.

Power Amplifier-the key to any audio system is how well harmonic equivalency is attainted. It is basically the matching of components. If a speaker is very bright sounding or produces too much glare you might want an amplifier that contributes softer high frequencies. The power amplifier is the engine of the system, power, finese, imaging height depth and detail depends on this component greatly. Not to say that speakers and pre amps do not however. When picking a power amplifier you can choose between a solid state or mechanical units often known as tube amplifiers. Solid state circuitry was invited because mechanical ones require maintenance and therefore present reliablity situations. Most amplifiers today use solid state circuites specifically for ease of use and longterm Satifaction.