I know that guys don't talk about how stuff "feels" all the time, but just this once I've got a good exception. Hey, you can even throw in your on macho male expleditives along the way if you like.

What I want to talk about, is that new piece of gear you've been eyeing. You know, the one that's going to make your system perfect.....

I'm going to go into observation mode here and review what I"ve felt, along with all the wild posts I've seen other people make.

First of all, you find out through some miracle that the magic piece of gear exists. And that....well that makes you happy. Then you start to learn a bit more about it. Maybe download a manual, do a quick search on google, or check the manufactures website for those really huge promotional photos you can print into a poster. Heck, print 2 of them. One for your room, and one to place over that special place in the car where it will call home.

Once your into "I want it" mode, find out the freaking price....this can kill the whole process in a hurry if it has any of the following on it: 1.)Made in Italy
2.)Made in Germany
3.)Made in China (different price reason)

Once you've made it past the price sticker check, (and the credit card balance check) you'll probably post some questions on you favourite car audio forum. Provided you don't get bashed for asking that kind of question too much, you should get some good feedback. One of the following is a good indicator:

1.)Yeeeeeaahhhhh...thats the tihs maaaann!!!!
2.)Good choice, where do you live and what color and make of car do you drive?

The following is a bad indicator:

"I've got 10 of those for sale reeeaaalll cheap, PM me for details"

At this point if you are still in the game, you are probably feeling pretty stoked. Heck that poster in your room may even have made it to the # one spot....directly above you bed. (displacing the playmate of the month)

Now the next step is to find your "deal" on the gear. Personally, I like to deal with a shop in person, so I'll drive to my nearest Best Buy and talk to the OH SO KNOWLEDGEABLE staff about my piece of dream gear. It just happens to be on special that hour, and if you buy it within the next 15 minutes they will throw in a free bubble gum scent air freshener. Cha ching...it's back to the car and on your way home with the magic box of gear.

If your like me, you don't even make it home. Man...I've usually got the box open with crap all over my front seat in 15 seconds flat. Some how, you tear you attention away from the gear long enough to put the car in drive...and then..back to playing with the pretty ***** while you wait at the stop light. Heck...you even come to complete stops at stop signs just to twist the mystery **** one extra time.

Once you get home, you set up your photography studio to "shoot" the gear. This consists of clearing the beer cans off the carpet in front of the TV, and hiding any of the **** mags that might be poking out from under the sofa.

Once you get your gear down on the carpet, you proceed to photograph it from every imaginable angle. I mean, there's so many flashes going off that the neighbors think there's photo radar on your street. At some point, you even need to stop and put sunglasses on..because you know...your eyes are starting to hurt. But....you feel elated...you feel happy...you feel so good you take a picture of yourself smiling into the camera, sunglasses on and all.

Next.. you call every person you know, and a few on the quick dial list from your second hand phone that you don't know, to tell them all about your new gear. When you are done that...it's internet time.

You bring up the web pages of every car forum that you can find. Heck, you can even cross post it to some car sites too, so by now your start menu bar is chalk full of little grey and blue boxes reading Car Audio for Idiots and so on.......

Then you upload ALL of the pictures you just took to your image hosting site, and start typing away hot links like a mad man. Heck, you even post your smiling a$$ face at the end of every post so people will know who you are when they meet you at the local swap-meet.

When your finger are dead tired, and you've run out of sites to plaster your new swag onto, you bring one of these sites back up to revel in your creation. Step by step, you marvel at all 360 side view shots of your new toy, stoping every now and again to check that it's the same as what laying on your carpet. Then you get to the very bottom of the post, to the very last picture.

Your silly grin with the sunglasses on is priceless...and so is the big long nose hairs hanging out over you lip with a big gob of.....

How do you feel now?

People are silly.

Adam

 

I feel....humble.

But really, should I do something about the nose hair thing?

 

i feel that there aint no way im reading that log *** post

 

READ IT.

 

pretty bang on Adam! however, i often don't make it through the price shock!! when teh PXA-H900 came out i was (naively) expecting a price of about $1500 cad. Had the money ready (tuition and books could wait) and was set on buying it. then i saw the price tag on teh CA&E April Equipment listing. Boy did my heart sink!! i felt so disilusioned! checked it over a coulple of time over a couple of days just to make sure it wasn't a mistake. the printed price tag of $4000.00 USD never changed... go figure!
And so the long journey to find an affordable solution started, as did the trail of disapointment due to Vaporware from some highly respected manufacturers. Everytime a new piece was anounced i went hog wild searching the Forums for insider info, but ususally to no avail on where to get the pieces (ie, ID ONE, Zapco thingy.

So now you have it. this is what happens when i can't get past the price crusher.
Marco

 

ok, This post describes me exactly in about 2 weeks from now when my new gear arrives!! LOL. I'm even gonna have the wife take a pic of my lame *** mug grinning ear to ear, wearing my sunglasses.

 

I can honestly say I've never experienced anything remotely close to that ... It must be because I never plan purchases; I find wicked deals and jump all over them