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1995.After leaving the DIY sector, I decided to try my hand at selling electrical goods. This is when I first heard about DVD (or films on CD they where being called back then.). "*Dolby* Digital" and **DTS** films were showing in the cinemas & manufacturers were beginning to develop Digital surround sound hardware for the home. Laserdisc & TV broadcasts were the two forms of good quality picture & sound at the time. I was sorely tempted to buy a Laserdisc player, but after hearing about DVD, I decided to wait. I'm glad I did!! 1997.After deciding my old Monitor Audio speakers were too big for my bedroom, I bought a pair of Tannoy Mercury M2 bookshelf speakers for £140-. The centre speaker came soon afterwards, A Jamo Centre 100 mark II for £150-. Total cost £290-. I sold my old PC & bought a new one. 1998.I could not wait! DVD had arrived! I rushed out and bought a Panasonic A100 DVD player & a Sherwood 925 *Dolby* Digital receiver from my local branch of Richer Sounds, total cost £750-. Now for the software! Arrgghh!!! None available locally. Back to London again, the first disc I bought was "The Three Tenors" concert in 1990. Sad I know, but it was the only disc out of about a dozen available I liked. Digital home cinema at last! The front & rear speakers sounded unbalanced for the first time, so the rear speakers were upgraded to Tannoy Mercury M1 bookshelf speakers for £90-. As for **DTS** sound in the Grimleyplex, I decided against it because DVD with **DTS** sound was non-existent in this country and I'd spent enough money as it is. Total cost £840-. I connected to the internet for the 1st time. 1999.One day in the electrical shop I was working in at the time, I had an unusual customer complaint to deal with. The shop manager was away on holiday; the complaint was a faulty video recorder that would only develop a fault intermittently in his house (turned out to be a design error which required an upgrade to the video recorder). As his address was near to the shop, I agreed to go and witness the fault. The video was part of a much grander home cinema set-up than the Grimleyplex, we got talking and he gave me a brief demonstration of his home cinema. I asked him if had got **DTS**, he then got out a **DTS** demonstration disc. WOW! I knew right away I just had to make **DTS** part of the Grimleyplex. I decided to upgrade all the Hi-Fi components so they would match. Out went the Pioneer CD player & tape deck I had at the time. The Sherwood receiver was upgraded to a Sony STR-DB930, bought online for £380-, the DVD player was upgraded to a Sony DVPS-525 (chipped for Multi-region discs) for bought online again for £450- and a Sony MDS-JE 520 Minidisc player was bought from Richer Sounds (again) for Digital recordings. The DVD player was used for CD playback as well. The Phillips TV finally went the way of the dodo; so that was replaced with a JVC AV28WT2 I bought through work for £480. Total cost including connecting lead upgrades, £1,560- A pretty expensive year, but worth it! 2000.Arrgghh again!! My Sony receiver goes wrong!! I send it back to be repaired. To be on the safe side, I extended the guarantee. It worked OK for a month, then went wrong again! Right that's it, time for a replacement. While I waited for it to be repaired for a second time (under the extended guarantee this time) I got the Sherwood receiver out of mothball & part traded it for the Sony STR-DB 940 at my local branch of Richer Sounds. They had the 930 in stock as well at a lower price, but I went for the 940 because the remote is better and the bad experience I had with my 930. Total cost £260-. The 940 does sound better then the 930 but for some strange reason I had to turn the Subwoofer volume up when I connected it to the 940. I upgraded to Sky Digital for free this year as well. (A word of advice to anyone with Sony AV receivers from 1998 onwards; keep them well ventilated, they run hot & I believe that's why the 930 went wrong!) 2001.No upgrades this year, I got sick of selling expensive extended guarantees, so I left the electrical retail sector & started the job I' m doing now. I bought my 3rd PC! I was studying for a computer course which involved understanding how the internet works & website design, I bought a digital camera in order to take pictures for the pending website project. So, onto 2002.... * “Dolby”, the double-D symbol, “Dolby Digital”, “Dolby Surround” & “Pro-Logic” and are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation. * **“DTS” and “DTS Digtial surround” are trademarks of Digital Theater Systems Inc.** ***Lucasfilm & “THX” are registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd. ***
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