I finally have my surround sound system installed!

Despite a plethora of great presents from my family, what I really wanted was a surround sound system but there was no way I could justify the £500 price tag for a gift (even from my wife!).

Whilst in Guernsey, I spent my free time re-investigating my options for speakers to see what a £250 budget would offer. I had to be realistic: £500 is a lot of money to justfy. My research led me to a highly respected set of speakers from Jamo which were available for under £250, although they seemed to be out of stock everywhere. I noticed that the Richer Sounds January sale was on and that they were advertising the Jamos so I thought I'd pop in there on Saturday when we got back to the UK.

Saturday came and, unsurprisingly, they didn't have the Jamos so I asked them if they had the Harman Kardons in stock (I had researched these too and, although pricier, still had good reviews). No joy. I was just about to leave empty-handed when the salesman asked me to wait a minute and went and spoke to the manager. He came back and offered the KEF 1005.2 system for £399 (£100 off it's usual retail price). Given that my ultimate system would have been the 1005's bigger brother (the 2005 series) I jumped at the chance!

I couldn't go straight home and play with my new toy as we had loads of shopping to do. We drove down to Branches by Temple Meads (the same place we bought our dining table from) and ended up finding the perfect coffee table in solid oak. We managed to shoehorn that into Fi's car along with the speakers!

We drove home, had some soup and then headed back out to the shops - this time to Cribbs to pick up some bits and bobs followed by a trip to Waitrose for the weekly shop.

We finally got back home just after 16:00 and I started unpacking the speakers with haste. We were heading out for dinner at Sophie & Alexander's place at 19:30 so i couldn't play all night. I resigned myself that night to just wire the AV receiver in the media cupboard to the speakers and then configure things on Sunday. This I managed.

Dinner was great fun. Drank way too much wine and didn't get home until 02:30! I have fond memories of playing Rapidough for a while!

Woke up Sunday at 09:00 with excitement and a hangover. Fi was out for the count so I couldn't play with the speakers (I didn't want to wake her) so I went for a walk down to Whiteladies, across the Downs, to get a Sunday paper. There was a lot of black ice around so it took me longer than unanticipated and I didn't get back until 10:00. Inwoke Fi up cooked her breakfast and then got to work setting stuff up at around 11:00.

The whole process took a lot longer than I had anticipated. The first time you set up a receiver, you have to use a setup mike to calibrate the speakers. Trouble is, the lead on the mike wouldn't reach the receiver (which is in a separate room). This meant that I had to unwire everything in my cupboard, cut new speaker wire (as the other ones are under the carpet) and move the receiver. Once I had done this, I then wall mounted the speakers (and hung a couple of additional shelves whilst I had the drill out) before hooking them up to the receiver.

After the calibration was done, I had to put the receiver back in the cupboard and rewire it again. As soon as I get a chance, I'll post a picture of the mess!

I finally finished at about 19:00 (don't worry, Fi and I had gone outside for a walk in the middle of the afternoon). Fi and I sat down, after dinner, to watch our first movie at home with true surround sound - The Bourne Identity. It was a awesome experience and I'm thrilled with the result.

Much work still needs to be done. I desperately need a universal remote to control the AV receiver (largely for volume control). I need a remote that doesn't require a direct line of site to the component you wish to contol. Fortunately, I've found one that should do the job but it's £200! I also need to test the PS3 and Wii in their current locations. As their controllers operate via Bluetooth, they can connect to the console in the cupboard but I'm worried about dropping button-presses which may make gaming impossible. I'll test things out (hopefully) later in the week although I'm on-call until Thursday and am off to Budapest on Friday for a long weekend. If they don't work, things get tricky as once the projector is purchased (way down the line!), I'll be unable to hook the consoles up to any form of speaker!