Self indulgence

My birthday was this past weekend and all my wife got me was two boxes of orange pyms. They were tasty.

More importantly, Joanne has given me the allowance to indulge in some purchase of consumer electronics. For her birthday next month, her big present (which she's already aware of) is an absence of complaining on on upcoming trek to Bryce National Park. She's fairly sure she's getting the better end of the deal.

I still haven't completely decided what to get, but here is the wish list, none of which is really all that necessary:

1. A DVD-R with hard drive and ATSC tuner. Likely the Philips DVDR3575H
or Panasonic DMR-EZ27K (sans hard drive). But this is no go--it's the first gen of recorders with tuners, so it's still a work in progress.

2. Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD Player. Has been priced as low as $200, but I'm still not inclined to pick my "winner" in the format war between HD-DVD and Blueray.

3. A combo external hard drive and hd-tuner for the computer. I treat this as a combo since the any recording from the tuner would use of disk space. But the additional storage would also allow for higher bit rate music ripping.

4. Rack mount power supply with individual control of outlets. Either a Tripp Lite MT-6+ or a Panamax 4300. This does fulfill a need of sorts. A flaw of our plasma is the amount of electricity it uses while off, so it would be nice to have control of the main power while still using other devices connected. The rack mount also provides a cleaner look to the cabling. And while I question the effect of line conditioning claims, I hold out hope that a good power supply can help with our ground loop problem.

5. A new 19-20" widescreen monitor. My iMac at work is a 17" widescreen which is much better than the home monitor. Of course the difference is more in the resolution and sharpness that the width, to I'm disinclined to go super cheap for a monitor, but I'm not in favor of spending a ridiculous amount either. The Viewsonic is nice, but joanne's not a fan of the speaker bar. Samsungs or NECs would also be under consideration.

6. A new, robust center speaker. Same manufacturer as our current speaker, and it comes in a bamboo finish. Another option is to sell the current speakers and go two channel with no center. This option might even cost less. As Joanne points out, I'm unlikely to be given the chance to get this again, so that makes it a winner. However, while I want to play the part of audiophile, I'm not really--my ears aren't that discerning. Still, it's bamboo! And there's always the 30-day in home trial. i also offered Joanne the possibility of going with speakers with a smaller form factor, the Orbs, but, God bless her, she didn't want to take a step back in audio quality.

So I'm not in a huge rush to make a decision, but it will likely be one of the bottom three, assuming some measure of guilt doesn't kick in that prevents me from making any purchase at all.