Home Entertainment

It's Saturday and well received to say the least. For such a short week it was really a long one. It totally messed me up having the rush rush of Monday, only to slow it all down again and head into a day off for New Years, then back at it again for 3 days only to be off again for 2. Don't get me wrong, a day off any day is appreciated.

Lounging

For this first time in a long ass time I actually slept in past 8:00 this morning and it felt pretty dam good. Cicely got up and fed the fuzzy kid and then they both came back in and snuggled in for some snoozin'. I actually talk a bigger talk because I was up by 8:45. Got up, had some coffee and thought about the things I wanted to accomplish with my day.

Kickstarter And Indiegogo

Many of my close friends and family will tell you that I love to support technical ideas that I believe in, in anyway that I can, almost as much as I enjoy buying and playing with tech. Kickstarter and Indiegogo have proven to be great resources for doing so on the small scale that I am able to be involved and it's a hell of a lot of fun as well.

It all started back when I helped fund my first project for a 360 degree iPhone camera called DOT, made by a company by the name of Kogeto. It is both a really cool device and a really outstanding company that stands behind their product as much as they believe in them, which is a ton.

I have helped to fund bands, t-shirt companies, artist, illustrators, electronic gadgets as well as several others and have never been let down nor disappointed by the products. Today while looking through the CES 2013 edition of DISTRO magazine on my iPad I came across this kick-ass new idea for a quarter size Bluetooth gadget. The devices are really cool, at first glance they do not seem like much but they are. Say you lose your keys all of the time, well put one on your keyring and install the application on your smartphone. Walk more than "X" feet from your keys and get an alert that you are leaving them behind at the bar. Pretty cool huh? I realize there are a few gadgets out there sorta like this but this one struck me as one that is better thought out and adaptable to many other things, some we have not even thought of yet I would bet.

There are hundreds of cool things to do with them so I could not resist and had to join in supporting the project. After-all being a supporter at a measly $65 mark I will receive 4 of the gadgets and more importantly get to help them out, that's what I call a win-win.

More on those when they show up in March, I cant wait for them to get here already! By-the-way, I am not providing the link only because the funding period will be over by the time you read this and the link would probably go to a dead link or redirect. No matter if you have not ever checked out either of the aforementioned sites and like to help out inventors while potentially getting some cool stuff in the process you should go take a look. Or if you have ideas of your own there you go, there is a place to solicit your madness to the world!

Some ideas you can help out with a measly $5 or less. Go on, its the right thing to do and you never know how big an idea may become with just a little support from many. Not to leave out the fact that you would have some sweet bragging rights that you were there in the beginning. More importantly it's progression and you never know what problems we may solve while having a little fun with a little Bluetooth gadget and a smartphone.

I have read that these Bluetooth gadgets already have interest from stores for sticking to the bottom of items to alert them when items have been taken from the shelf, misplaced and so on. They would have to come way down in price as well as a few other things but again, it has already caught the attention of some of the bigger bidders so that is a win if you ask me. What if kids had them while on the playground, a kid wanders off, teacher immediately gets a text when the kiddo is out of range and wham, you have just avoided a situation that could have gone bad in many ways.

Sound Bars, Sound Pedestals And Sound Bases

Ok since I seem to be misleading anyone that came across this post because of the underlying home entertainment information I guess I had better mention that I finally did some research today and ended up pulling the trigger on one of the SpeakerCraft Sound Bases.

For as simple as the sound base looks in the photo I will be the first to tell you that it was no easy decision. Not only are there a ton of various bars and bases to choose from there are also many variables for me personally. Where to mount it, what size, color and so on and because I am limited by the entertainment niche where my TV is located that adds another variable to the decision making process. Then you have look at sound obviously because who cares where it fits or what color it is if it sounds like shxt, right?

I am happy to say that the SpeakerCraft CS3 Sound Base is far from a piece of crap and is more of the opposite, a well built piece of equipment that sounds amazing for its size (4" tall x 28" wide and 16 1/2" deep). It is part of the higher end equipment in the MAGNOLIA section at Best Buy if anyone is looking to hear one in person and has a Best Buy near home base.

I watched Batman on a smaller TV (36") listening to it through the sound base for a good 25 minutes at my local Best Buy. Next I decided I better check out the music quality and so I streamed some music through it from my iPhone 5 for 5 minutes or so with a few songs that I know very well and are very different musically to give it a fair shake-down (the CS3 has built in Bluetooth - a major selling point and requirement from the get-go for me).

I should mention that you can probably shop around and knock off a few bucks, maybe a few more after CES if any new equipment is released. Best Buy sells the CS3 right at the $600 mark and I thought it was a great deal for the sound and quality of the product. Don't get me wrong, most anyone that has a full on 7.1 with a tuned room, enclosures that are specked out for the air pressures within the enclosures and so on would not think it was as great as I do, but I guarantee they would appreciate it. At the same time I am not spending mega bucks in comparison.

I checked out nearly all of the sound bars as well for nearly 2 hours in the store. Everything from sound to the products measurements. Whether they had Bluetooth, a wireless sub woofer and so on and while some of them sounded pretty nice, none compared to the SpeakerCraft's solid sound. Most of the bars sounded "tinny" or "thumpy" but in the sense they were doing something they were not supposed to be doing, almost over or under powered depending on the unit. Again, not a bad sound for the sub $250 price range, but not the sound I was looking for. In my mind, to spend a few hundred more was well worth it, essentially a necessity.

Also, I should mention just in case anyone is planning to run out and purchase one after reading this in-depth review (kidding) I was told it did not come with an optical audio cable, and after looking at the box when I got it home it actually does, although I have a feeling it will be too short. If not, I will take the one I bought back and have $29 back in the bank account.

Yeah, Yeah, I know - $29 for a 5' wire, so sue me. I am by no means someone to shop and drive all over town for days on end or scour the internet to find a deal on a cable, HDMI or otherwise. Although had Radio Shack been open I would have ran over and picked one up for about 1/2 the price I bet. No matter, and more importantly, it is supposed to be crappy tomorrow with more snow so I did not want to have to leave again, I want to set-up my new toy and watch motocross racing!

Racing Season

Supercros starts tonight with the kick-off race in Anaheim, California as it does every year. I am not going to watch it until tomorrow because Cicely and I are finally watching the Doctor Who Christmas special, and then possible a few episodes of Suits, season 2. We are all caught up on Warehouse 13 (boo!) so we now have to wait for new episodes to air. It's a great time to earn some points by having TV time with the wife and showing that I am a thoughtful husband by putting-off my races until tomorrow, see how that works - give and take, take note.

Anyway, I am looking forward to watching supercross and hope that the rider I follow, #7 James Stewart, kicks some ass. He has been out with injuries nearly every season lately so I would like to see him have a good season like the way his career started out. Now I just have to try and stay away from any news about it on the internet so I don't find out what happened before I watch it!

NASCAR should be starting back up in about 2 months I think and I am looking forward to the season. Sometimes it's hard to find the time to watch every single 4 hour race, but anytime I don't I regret it. For anyone that does not understand all of the technology in NASCAR (yes I know, nothing compared to F1) watching racing seems boring with cars running 200 mph around an oval or tri-oval racetrack for 4 hours. But like any sport, once you understand the inner-workings and strategies it's impossible to not get sucked in and enjoy it just as I do. Oh, I follow #14 Tony Stewart and cant wait to see him turning laps and hopefully raising trophies in 2013.

Until Tomorrow

That is it for today. I apologize in advance for the lack of a "review" if you were looking for that when reading this entry. There is so much great information out on the internet for stuff like this I figured why should I try and go into detail about the SpeakerCraft CS3 Sound Base. I write about stuff like this because I am stoked that I have it and want to share my stoked-ness (that is a word right? Is now!) with friends and family. Have a great Saturday night!

Photo: SpeakerCraft CS3 Sound Base