In about to two weeks (on June 15th), my girlfriend and I will be moving to San Francisco to begin our ‘adult’ lives. While it’s pretty exciting, it’s going to be stressful, but we’re both looking forward to it.

The To-Do list practically explodes when you’re moving. It’s filled with important things like finding an apartment and a car and having done that, we’ll need furniture and of course, my favorite, an entertainment system.

My research on electronics (TV, audio system, etc) so far includes a trip to Best Buy and chatting with a dude from TV section while waiting to pick someone up.

So let’s recap and think about other offerings. I’ll also list some ideal products that I’d be interested in when the time actually comes, but can’t necessarily afford!

Television

Last few years have been important for TVs. Lots of things happened, from introduction of HDTV to huge-yet-super-thin television sets thanks to Plasma and LCD technology and it’s all really exciting. On top of that, it’s all really confusing for an average consumer.

Up until that trip to Best Buy, I always though LCD TVs were better than Plasma, but apparently I was wrong. The helpful guy in the sickening-blue polo told me that Plasmas historically have had better color reproduction. Plasmas also come in bigger sizes and are cheaper (which is another reason I thought LCDs were better).

For my main TV, I was thinking of at least a 42inch in size as that is what we have at home and it seems just right. Depending on the apartment, we may not need such a big TV and can do fine with 30-40in. While I’m sure LCDs have their own advantages, such as the ability to hook up a computer, I think I will be sticking with Plasma. Unless you’ll convince me otherwise?

Some pros for LCD include greater durability and they are much lighter. They’re also apparently easier to install, but we had no problems with my family’s Plasma (although it was a bit on the heavy side). Source

For me, according to that source, LCD TVs don’t have enough pros to justify the higher prices.

Here’s my pick for a 43” Plasma TV: Pioneer PDP-4360HD.

I’m going strictly by CNET reviews right now and haven’t seen this TV in person, which is a must when shopping for TVs!

According to the review this TV outperforms previous Pioneer plasmas (well.. duh), has nice deep blacks and great overall picture quality. Not to mention great looks and the right price of $1800 at the time of writing.

Media Receivers

Nothing is really jumping out at me other than Apple TV. Yes, I’m an Apple fan, but I don’t make uninformed purchases, so this is definitely not going to be an impulse buy (I need to keep telling myself this).

Overall it’s a wonderful product, affordable and from what I’m heading/reading/making up, it’s going to get even better with next update. Hopefully soon, in June.

My Macbook Pro is older and doesn’t have 802.11n wifi capability, so I’m not sure how much this is an issue (streaming video and all, especially HD-video). Does anyone know? I might be upgrading my system anyways.

Apple TV runs Mac OS X, so it’s totally hackable if I need something it doesn’t support and it has a fairly big following. According to MacRumors (yeah yeah rumors), Apple TV may even offer TV programming through AT&T. Pretty interesting as it would complete this system in so many ways.

Overall, it’s great looking and great functional product and I’m looking forward to what Apple will do with it in the coming weeks.

Home Theater Systems

There are too many to pick from, but this one definitely stood out: Cambridge SoundWorks Newton HD 5.1.

This system is really kickass, but it comes with a huge price tag of $3500, which is definitely out of my range. Still, this is post about an ideal setup, not necessarily affordable :)

What I love most about this system is the awesome audio reproduction. It sports a 300-watt subwoofer which helps eliminate floor vibrations through some complex engineering. According to CNET: “judged on a dollar-for-dollar basis, there’s nothing that can touch it.”

In other words, if you’re in the market for a high-end home theater system and your budget is around ~$3500, then look no further.

For the rest of us and dare I say, the majority, we’re back on shopping trail to find something great with a lower price tag. I haven’t found it yet. Have you?

Paul reviewed a surprisingly nice digital music system: Sonos. This is a bit different from what I’m looking for, but something to look into and knowing that it’s Stammy Certified is a big plus.

Conclusion

Putting it all together will be fun when the time comes, but will definitely run up the bill. Finding great products while staying in the budget is tricky for some, especially someone like myself who’s just starting out.

Looking forward to revisiting this post when our entertainment center is all done!