Thanks to a lot of hand-me-downs and hand-me-sides, I’ve managed to assemble all the pieces necessary to put together a surround sound system.  I’ve always wanted one, and thanks to the generosity of relatives with old technology and/or broken sound systems with still-working speakers, I’ve gotten one.  I guess I just never realized how much space speakers and a receiver and a sub woofer take up.

I’m torn on the design of RHT-G series of TV stands with built-in surround sound systems/receivers.  It definitely takes up a whole lot less space, but it looks heavy and is definitely more than a little bit clunky.  I’ll admit that the space-saving aspect is a huge boon, especially in a small apartment or a bedroom where space is a premium.

However (and this is a huge problem for me with any combination system like this), if one of the speakers goes bad, you have to throw the whole thing out.  I recently had to toss my parents’ DVD/VCR recorder because the circuitry inside went bad.  If it had been a separate VCR and DVD player, then I’d only be out one box, not two.  If this particular unit had a problem, I’d be out six speakers, a control system, AND a table.  If they made these things modular, I’d definitely get one.