Whisper quiet.

I mentioned I had all the pieces to my new surround sound system. I didn't think I'd get around to setting it up, but at 9 PM last night, the mood struck.

First I pulled out the shelves and wires and clutter that had accumulated behind the TV. Then I unplugged everything, swept away the hair and dust, cleaned each wire, power strip and surface and moved our any equipment that wasn't going in the new setup.

Then I cut and stripped all the speaker wire, wired the speakers, connected all the consoles and plugged everything in the right spot. Then I double checked it all.

Finally, I booted up each system to make sure everything was A-Ok. And it was not...

At first I thought "Picture! Perfect, everything worked! But no sound? Hmm, oh, the volume is down. Ha."

But still no sound. So I flipped around the modes and settings. Nothing. Finally, I cranked the volume to the max, and there was sound after all! It was just whisper quiet, and only audible at the highest settings. Crap.

So I RE-re-checked all my connections, looked through the manual, re-wired the speakers and tried again. Still nothing. So I plugged in headphones. Same result. It's not the speakers. I had already been using them with my old system, so I knew they worked. And the headphone test proved it. It must be the receiver. Some poking online pretty much confirmed my suspicion.

At this point it's been about 3 hours since I started. Waste of time.

So I had to send it back. I first went to Sony's site, and filled out a customer support claim. Since I just got it, they would fix it for free. I just had to ship it to Texas. On my own dime. And I wouldn't see it again for weeks/months.

Hmmm. 1/2 hour later, I finished that process online, but then I had a better idea. Who did I buy it from? Who always impresses me with their awesome service and willingness to go above and beyond my expectations? Amazon!

Sure enough, I went to the site, looked at my past orders, clicked "I want to return" "defective product" and that was it. I got a shipping label (free of charge). No questions asked. They immediately sent me a replacement that should be here in two days. No questions asked. All I do is send the defective one in within the month, and it's a done deal. No waiting. No money. Nothing. Perfect.

So that calmed me a bit. I set my old system back up, and played a bit of Mass Effect 2 to relax before it got too late.

Hopefully I'll have the new receiver by Saturday, everything will set up smoothly, and I'll forget this whole pain in the butt.