5 Electronics That Must Be In a Guys Living Room

I’m a guy and I’m also a nerd, electronics is something that flows through my blood and makes me giddy as a school girl. And like all things man, the bigger the better. With electronics, you must be up to date and on top of your game to compete with your neighbor, the bastard with the 70” DLP that you see every time you roll by his pad. See, that guy knows he’s ballin, he knows that the 5 essential electronics are sitting just a remotes shot of his chubby little hand. So what’s this guy got that I don’t you may be asking yourself? I’m about to tell you. Let me start by saying that I’m a college student, money for most comes hard during these times. Woman understand and mostly accept we are broke and will still go home with you even though your rocking a pre-paid celly and a Magnavox TV with turn knob dials. Me, I guess I got lucky. I dropped my money into the market and now able to live comfortably writing to you shoeheads. Now don’t get me wrong, I have been in the electronics game for a while and take much pride in my living room setup. I have bought the crap and also got lucky with the great, so if you want a living room that is liquid panty remover, read on.



#5: Some type of moving electronic, to accompany all the others.

What I mean is you need something classy but pimp, it doesn’t need to serve any pleasure, just eye-candy. In my apartment, I have a 5 foot Atrium, or waterfall. It has a Halogen lamp on the top and a rock-bottom footing which adds class to the pad plus movement in what would be a still apartment. Don’t use something like a lava lamp or lava floor lamp, that’s mad cheese, also no mini-fridge you young drunk fools. If you can’t afford a waterfall, then an acceptable substitute can be a LIVE, not fake plant. Just go to your local Home Depot, and grab one for $40. Live plants are not only pimp, but woman like to know a man can take care of something living, even if it is a plant.


#4: Lighting.

A lot of people may think that this is a minor aspect of a pimp ass pad, but it’s not. It’s like playing your Playstation 3 with AV-Video cables on your HD TV, you got beauty, but it’s being delivered wrong. Now there are two types of light settings, there is the kind that you want on when you’re watching a movie with a cutie (ambient). And then there’s the kind you need when you’re playing some beer-die with your bros (heavy lighting). For heavy lighting, the best look and best delivery is from floor lamps with natural light emitting light bulbs. Not only is this cheap, but if you get the right one, it can spice up the pad and make it look killer. Don’t forget, you need two, one on each side of the viewing area. For ambient lighting, go to your local Depot again, and buy a set of small round ambient lights. They are about 3” in diameter and run about $50. There are two main spots to place these lights for the optimal effect. If your telly is wall hung, place them behind it. This gives a soft white hue behind the TV and adds perfect ambience especially for viewing movies. Yeah yeah I know Philips makes an LCD with ambient lighting but I haven’t got there yet plus, this is the poor-mans guide. Another placement idea is on your entertainment stand, shinning up towards the television. This works with both wall hung and stationary set ups.


#3: Sound System.

This part is essential for achieving pimp status living room. It’s also one of the needed necessities that you can get away with fairly cheap. When you’re rocking an incredible HD setup, only half its potential is reached when sound is being delivered via TV speakers. (Flashback to my PS3 analogy) What the hell do I look for you ask? Well there are a few things that I look for when buying surround sound setups. First of all there are two ways to approach this, the rich man’s way, and the poor man’s way. If you are the “rich man”, go and buy a Bose Virtual Surround Sound. For around 2k, you can get the cream of the crop sound delivery system which consists of two satellite fronts, and a sub for base. Somehow through sound engineering technology, Bose achieved surround sound with-out surrounding you with satellite speakers. My dad rocks this system and trust me, its well worth the money if you got the cash to burn. Now if you’re the type like me that needs to go to Circuit City or Wally World to get their setup, don’t worry, we can make it good. First rule is don’t buy a DVD/Receiver surround sound, most of the time it lacks the bells and whistles plus, its DVD. What are you living in the 90’s guy? Second make sure that the receiver has Optical Audio out. This delivery of sound is second best to HDMI in the known world, trust me I’m a geek, I know. These days, even the cheapest receiver comes with Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital DTS encoded, so don’t worry about these things right now, that will come in a later article. Actually, bother Will about it in Shoehead tech and he will send you detailed info about it. All in all you can get away with spending $200 on a decent setup to get your pad going. Don’t forget, this is not just for viewing pleasure, music is also needed when you’re throwing a rager.


#2: Blu-Ray or PS3.

If you’re still rocking VHS, then my friend you are struggling. If you still have a DVD player, then it’s time to move into the new era. If you have a DVD Up converter, then that means your dreaming of HD, but you just can’t taste it yet. The death of HD DVD is old news, hell I was calling that when it first came out. In the 80’s VHS might have beat out Sony’s Betamax, but this time Sony comes out on top with its Blu-ray format. In order to achieve total pimp status however, you must have either a movie theatre, (Blu-ray player) or a gamming system, (PS3) if you’re not into gamming then you must possess a Blu-ray player. Thanks to the fall and death of HD-DVD and also the amount of time the technology (Blu-ray) has been around, the players are very affordable. It may not be top of the line, but you can get away with a Blu-ray player for around $200. If you’re a gamer, for an extra $200 you get the best of both worlds. You can have the most powerful home gamming system there is, plus enjoy 1080P, Blu-ray DVD’s. I did forget to mention that you must purchase an HDMI cable for either one, this will run you about $25 but it’s needed. You can have the best equipment money can buy, but it don’t mean squat if the cables that are delivering your signal are from the 80’s. So man up.


#1: LCD or Plasma Plus Your Cable Service.

Everyone thinks they know which is better LCD or Plasma, they will give you these old-school reasons why one is superior to the other blah blah blah. I’m here to cut through all that jazz and give you two options, one or the other, simple right? Yes, five years ago Plasma TV’s had problems with screen burning (you change the channel but the last channel has a ghostly image on the screen) And yes, five years ago LCD had a horrible “bright” screen life after much and much use (the picture will become less vibrant after hours of use) Understand, that like any technology in our world, it is always improving. These days it comes down to two major categories, small TV up to about 42”-47” buy an LCD. If you want bigger than that, then you’re going Plasma. LCD doesn’t come in those sizes because the picture at that point would be negatively affected, Plasma’s just don’t come in small sizes because the technology is too expensive. Price is also affected by the sub-categories, which are the bells and whistles plus the brand name. So if you have under a thousand bucks to spend, I recommend going with Olevia or Vizio. You can get yourself a 42” 1080i which is pimping for a tight budget. If you got a little more cash than the average guy, then take a look into Sony’s Bravia line, or Toshibas Regza, both great 1080P TV’s for around $1500. I personally rock the Toshiba Regza, great price, great picture and great looking being all glossy black.
What is a great TV with-out great service? It’s nothing. You can’t have a Plasma 1080p TV with basic analog cable. I personally know people who are like this and it boggles my mind. My only experience is with Time Warner Cable so I have never dealt with satellite. Cable is pricey I will admit, but HD channels are free with digital cable along with the in-demand channels. The signal is always great no matter what the weather, but it lacks a large selection of HD channels (around 30ish) I hear Direct TV has like 70 channels but you pay per tier, and that can get real pricey, tiers suck. What is important here though is that you have HD service coming into your living room and being played through your now, educated pimp ass living-room. I can’t guarantee you that the undies will be flying off but, when you bump some soft music with the lights dimmed out and the waterfall flowing. Just pop in The Notebook on Blu-ray and let that little lady get swept off her feet by the breath-taking picture quality.