Q. I have a three-season home that's closed up and unheated during winter months. Early HDTVs (LCD/plasma) couldn't be guaranteed free of damage by their manufacturers if their screens were subjected to temperatures at or below freezing. A neighbor recently bought a plasma screen, believing it wouldn't be susceptible to such low temperatures.
How much is music worth? Nietzsche wrote, "Without music, life would be a mistake." That places a high value on sounds that entertain and sometimes inspire us. Then again, at 3 o'clock in the morning, you'd pay good money to have the music at the party next door shut off.
Like many other A/V stores, California Soundworks (californiasoundworks.com, 661-945-0971) started out as a home stereo store selling gear to audiophiles. That was back in 1979.
So just how big a Santa are you? A stocking-stuffer, who shills out a mere $21 for the latest two-disc Blade Runner DVD set? Or the kind that enlists all available elf-muscle to deliver an $870, 90-motion-picture gift-a-ganza: the United Artists Super Deluxe Gift Set?
Q. I have a question regarding the "Ask an Installer" column in the September issue. In his answer, the installer recommended putting in Cat-5e cable in a new home installation for sending video and audio to multiple rooms. Wouldn't it be better to install Cat-6 rather than Cat-5e, given its high-speed design for 1- and potentially 10-gigabit Ethernet?
