Yamaha 2022 AVENTAGE receiver acts as the heart of your whole-house entertainment and surround sound system

It's probably been a while since you've bought a new audio/video receiver or maybe I'm being assumptive and this is your first foray into surround sound. No worries...we'd be happy to help. Your audio/video receiver is the heart of your surround sound and whole-house entertainment system. Making the right choice here assures sonic excellence and also provides you the flexibility to hook up future components. However, dealing with the big-box stores or attempting to figure out what to buy on the Internet can be painful (aside from this article, of course). Here's a quick guide to picking the right audio/video receiver. This goes over some of the new 2022 Yamaha AVR models.

What is it: Your Yamaha AVR (short for audio/video receiver) acts as the hub of your audio/video system. All of your components like cable boxes, video games, Blu-ray players, streaming devices, etc. hook into the receiver and it provides the sound for your speakers. Pick your receiver based on:

Eero vs Google WiFi - What's the best mesh WiFi?

Eero vs Google WiFi

When it comes to good WiFi...you ain't got time to mess around! The Google Mesh WiFi product has gotten very popular lately buuuuuuuuuuuuut...we don't recommend it. As this just came up 30 seconds ago at one of our clients' homes, here's another reason to pass on Google WiFi and to go with Eero mesh systems...the pioneer in the WiFi mesh category.

Should you cut the cord from cable? Maybe not!

Everyone - "How to cut the cord from cable?"

This is one of the most popular questions we've gotten over the last few years. In some of our past articles, we've gone over the pros-and-cons of getting rid of cable and satellite TV and using streaming services for your TV viewing. See below:

How to cut the cord from cable - Part 1

How to cut the cord from cable - Part 2

Why you don't want to cut the cord from cable

In this quick blurb, we are going to focus on why you DON'T want to cut the cord from cable.

Example: Like football? You didn't if you had DirecTV's Sunday Ticket last week. No football for you! They had a glitch with their streaming service so you weren't able to watch most of the first series of games. You know what did give you football? Non-streaming cable boxes and satellite boxes.

Example: Amazon just brought on Thursday night NFL streaming games. YAY! I and many other thousands of people sure didn't like the continual audio drop-outs and audio delays trying the watch the Chargers vs. the Chiefs. You know what had FAR fewer drop-outs? Non-streaming cable boxes and satellite boxes.

Some past examples we list in the links above are:

Example: Want to watch channel 108 and you are on channel 9? You can't just punch in 1-0-8 with streaming TV. You need to go to the guide (which most of the time isn't a guide button so it can be confusing) and then navigate up/down/left/right/select to get to the desired channel.

Example: Want something that is reliable? Streaming devices such as Rokus, AppleTVs, Fire devices, etc. are much less reliable than cable boxes or satellite boxes. You will have more issues with audio drop-outs, menus not working, devices locking up due to heat, etc. with streaming devices vs. cable boxes or satellite boxes. NOTE: STICK-STYLE STREAMING DEVICES ARE THE WORST FOR RELIABILITY AS THEY CAN'T DISSIPATE HEAT AS WELL AS FULL-SIZE UNITS.

NOTE 2: We understand that there will be the guy that says "You are wrong Aire Theater Designs. I cut the cord three months ago and it works perfectly." To that guy, we say "We are glad it has worked for you in your one instance. In our experience with hundreds of set-ups (and maybe more), in GENERAL you will have less reliability using streaming TV instead of cable or satellite boxes."

Ex: Do you look like this?             

If so, you may understand what to do if you have picture and no sound, spinning menus with no video, no center channel volume, pixelized images, etc. However, for most of our clients, the confusion that cord cutting can cause may not be worth the money you save every month. Let's talk about money.

$$$: When you opt to use Youtube TV, Fubo TV, Sling, etc. to get TV programming, you are paying $49-$89/month for the privilege. You have dropped the cable TV portion of your bill but you have now assumed this new expense. In many cases, the dollar savings aren't all they are cracked up to be.

Summary: We don't want to be Mr. Complain so in conclusion, we think streaming can be right for certain people as long as you are technical, know how to reset your devices when needed and understand that on average, you will have more issues streaming TV than using a cable box or satellite box.

Got questions about streaming TV or how to cut the cord and are in the San Diego or Southern California area? Give us a call and let us know how we can help!

How to fix your cable box and more...see below

Labor Day...YAY!!!! Sticky, hot weather with winds...BOOOOO!!! Did you know that upcoming weather like this causes havoc with your technology? These weather events often create problems with your cable box, Internet access and all things technology. Below are some tips to try if you have these types of issues while this weather is in town.

Lutron smart home lighting - Find out what is best for you

We've had a couple meetings lately where we have been blown away by the lack of knowledge by the "lighting designer" and/or electrician regarding today's smart lighting systems. As a result, we put together another one of our videos (see Youtube video above) to go over solutions and features from Lutron...one of today's most reliable (IMO) and widely-known lighting solutions for residential and commercial spaces.

Our latest video review is in! See the above for our opinions on the Martin Logan ESL-X electrostatic speakers. We think these speakers are magic (something our founder repeats 12 times during the review for emphasis) as they produce music and movies in a way that conventional speakers can't. Whether this is good or bad depends on your ear but we think that they sound absolutely incredible! Some highlights are: