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By: Richard Del Cazzo
Web site: http://www.hdtv-hdtv.com
It's easy to go into an audio-video store, plunk down the plastic
and say, "I want the best. Cost doesn't matter."
But most of us don't live in that world. We live in a world
of compromise. Is the next model up really worth $200 more?
Do I need that hyper-attenuated-multidigital thingamajig,
or can I live with the superattenuated-multidigital model?
No matter how much we trust the salesman, a little doubt
always lingers. It would be a lot more reassuring if we knew
the salesman didn't lose a commission when he said, "No,
you don't really need the next model up."
Howie Lund is trying to give consumers that kind of advice.
With his audio-video consulting company Howard Home Theater,
Lund will help design a home theater system, shop for it,
install it, teach the customer how to use it and figure out
what is wrong when something goes wrong. And something always
goes wrong.
"When the public hears home theater, the connotation
is the dedicated basement home theater," Lund said. "For
most people, that's not practical or possi- ble." Lund
said the "wretched excess" sys tems that we salivate
over in home theater magazines are not real istic goals for
most peo ple.
"While designing elaborate dedicated theater rooms and
high-end, multizone computer-linked systems is great fun,"
he said, "I see a need for design and installation help
for the entry- and middle-level buyer who wants to enjoy decent
surround sound but is intimidated by making sense of the equipment
and how to use it."
A client's wish list might send Lund to one of the high-end
A/V stores, or it may send him shopping at one of the big-box
stores.
"Let's look at what we can do on a Circuit City or Best
Buy budget," he said. "I'm in and out of those stores
to see those great deals, to see what open-box specials are
available."
Lund's fees are $50 an hour for the first hour and $30 an
hour for the rest of the time, with a $100 minimum.
"I like to believe that I'm self-liquidating,"
he said. "I will save you as much or more on what you
don't buy as what you will pay me."
Once the gear is purchased, Lund will work with the customer
to install the system. That could be as simple as hooking
up a few speaker wires or as delicate as hanging a plasma
television monitor on a wall. (Hanging plasma and burying
all the cabling inside the wall is probably a $600 job, he
said.)
Lund also teaches the customer how to use the audio-video
system. After programming universal remote controls to handle
as much of the system as is practical, he creates custom user
guides on laminated 4-by-6-inch cards.
If something doesn't go right with the system, Lund is only
a phone call away from the customer. He has a 24-hour help
line and has been known to make house calls in the wee hours
of the morning.
Lund is the son of Cleveland disc jockey Howie Lund, who
worked at several local stations, eventually handling the
morning drive time period on WERE AM/1300.
His father also was host of WERE's big-band show on Saturday.
Howie the younger also worked in radio, earning his first-class
FCC broadcasting license at 17. He left radio in 1982 to design
sound and light systems for nightclubs, often playing disco
tunes for patrons with big hair and shiny clothes as a club
DJ.
Having been around so much high-end equipment all his life,
Lund could easily have become an audio-video snob.
Instead, he says he is learning that less sometimes really
is more.
"It surprises me from my background how much of a minimalist
I have become," he said. "I always wanted that big
orange JBL logo. Now it's become, 'Let's make it go away.'
"
Once his buying and installing jobs are done, Lund said he
hopes his customers will have an audio-video system that is
as easy to use as it was painless to buy.
"That's what I want to bring to this," he said.
"Every person has the inalienable right to good sound."
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