A Tribute to You Guys (this seemed the right place to put it):

I am not a Custom Installer - I'm just an average guy that wanted a good A/V system for the house. I'm good with computers, I've had military electronics training (like, 30 years ago) so, I figured, how tough could this be? I spent at least 100 hours researching equipment (reading reviews, auditioning equipment, etc.) over a period of 3 months or so - I hadn't bought any GOOD A/V equipment in years, and had to find out what was out there. After my purchase (from knowledgeable people - just not remote programmers), I spent another 20 hours or so determining (what seemed to be) optimal speaker placement, hooking up the equipment, correcting my own hook-up mistakes, etc.; and another 50 hours or so for the remote - trying to program a Sony remote, giving up, trading it in for a Pronto, scouring this site, picking the brains of the GREAT people here, learning how to program a Pronto and actually programming it (after receiving a HUGE head start with ccf files copied from this site).

Now, I have a fairly decent system (for my budgeted $6,000), though not on the level you guys are at. Let's just say I have a good upgrade path! Now, let's see - I charge my clients $140/hour for my time (I'm a CPA). So, 100+20+50=170 hours. At $140/hr., that's ... $23,800? Even discounting the research time, that's 70 hours, worth $9,800.

Are you guys worth your fee? $150/hour seems reasonable, now that I know, what? 1% of what you guys know?

Just my $.02 worth. Thanks.

P.S. I STILL come to this site regularly to get ideas, listen to the REAL pros, and learn.