Installations: S.E.A.L. of Approval
A former member of the military elite takes on a couple of detail-obsessed clients and cleans up after a shifty installer.
(continued)
As for the audio (pumped through Klipsch ceiling speakers — the winners in a sound audition), Jeffrey and Jimmy appreciate the convenience that a four-zone system provides. "Because we have the whole-house audio system, it's very enjoyable," says Jimmy. "When you walk around the apartment, there's no break in the music." And the tunes also won't frazzle the nerves of the neighbors, no matter how loud they're played, since Chris and his team acoustically isolated the apartment.
Jimmy and Jeffrey have been using the home entertainment and lighting systems to their fullest without encountering any problems. They've embraced the use of Samsung Ultra Mobile PCs as system controllers and love it that their media-distribution system means they no longer have to wade through their 4,000-odd CDs to cull tunes. Dare they say it was all worth it?
"Nothing can prepare you for the stress of renovations," declares Jeffrey. "I used to have hair! We were unbelievably organized, we had a thorough set of drawings — we actually knew what we were doing. And yet the process is one of the most brutal things that I've ever been through. I mean, you're dealing with residential contractors and subcontractors. It's not for the faint-hearted. But I think we're at a point where, after all the hard work, we can really enjoy it and be proud of it. And just the few times we've had friends over so far, I think the reaction is — people are in disbelief, actually."
In the heat of renovation, Jimmy and Jeffrey were too busy to pursue the installer who ripped them off (though they did contact lawyers, the police, the Better Business Bureau . . .). Believe it or not, the guy hasn't dropped out of sight: He still answers his phone and sports a Web site. But now, "As soon as the dust settles on all this," concludes Jeffrey, "we definitely want to pay our friend a visit." So where does somebody have to go for some custom-installation justice?
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Equipment List
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| JVC DLA-RS1U 1080p three-chip D-ILA projector Auton motorized projector drawer Da-Lite 159-inch (diagonal) Advantage Electrol screen Sharp Aquos LC-46D82U 46-inch 1080p LCD HDTV (bedroom) Peerless flat-panel-TV wall mount (3) Klipsch CDT-5650 ceiling speakers (front LCR) (2) Klipsch CDT-2650 ceiling surround speakers Klipsch RW-5802 in-wall subwoofer Klipsch RSA-500 subwoofer amplifier (4) Klipsch CDT-2650-SC ceiling speakers (entertainment area, kitchen, master bedroom, master bath) (9) Dynamat Dynabox acoustic back boxes Yamaha YSP-1100 Digital Sound Projector (bedroom) Denon AVR-4306 7.1-channel digital surround receiver Denon DVD-1930CI universal DVD player Russound CAS44 four-zone audio-distribution system Scientific Atlanta 8300HD high-def DVR/cable-TV tuner (2) Samsung Q1 Ultra Mobile PCs (used as system controllers) Universal Remote Control MX-900 remote Universal Remote Control MSC-400 master system controller Dell XPS 710 personal computer (as media server) Furman Elite-15 DM power conditioner Global Caché GC100 network IR interface (2) Key Digital HDMI Blasters D-Link DIR 615 Draft-N Wi-Fi router (28) Insteon light switches (2) Color Kinetics iPlayer 2 lighting controllers (5) Draper motorized blackout shades LifeWare 2.0 software |
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631-877-SEAL
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