Equipment & Services Overview

We offer a select range of products based on a number of important factors:

• Their functional capabilities include all the important features of an enjoyable home theater experience.
• They work well with each other in one seamless system.
• They carry some of the best, most competitive product warranties in the industry.
• In hundreds of installations, we've had minimal satisfaction or dependability issues.

• Most importantly: They offer the best cost-value solution out there.

Before you Go Further...

Remember that you can call and speak to your design consultant and we'll be glad to go through the quote line by line over the phone or in person at your convenience.

I know, some of you, will want to read this instead, so that's why we are providing this information.

Quote E-Mail Contents

We almost always e-mail quotes as we've found faxes hard to read.  If you'd like a hard copy mailed directly to you, contact your Sales Design Consultant.

The Emailed quote contains a cover letter which gives you a brief summary of the quote, but YOU SHOULD ALWAYS REFER TO THE QUOTE ITSELF.

The cover letter also serves as a "fine print" reminder.  these are little things that we want to make sure you understand.  These include are policies about:

drywall repair and texturing, having a cabinet for the equipment with sufficient space, an explanation about how we handle fixed and variable labor lines, and an explanation about our "Finish What You Start" policy.

Attached you will find an Adobe PDF file that contains the actual quote itself.

A Note About How We Quote

With thousands of customers we have the benefit of feedback.  Feed back on what things customers had us come back to do later, things customer's later tell us they wish we had pushed them a little harder to get, and things that make sense to push out into alter phases when the budget's tight.

We start with the "Dream Quote".  This is a list of everything we talked about on the consultation broken out be zone.  By knowing the full cost of these various options, it's must easier to make decisions about them.  We want to work "Smarter" not "Harder" because harder costs you more.  One way we do that is by accurately identifying all the things you want to do, the things you might want to do and the things you know just aren't worth and you'll never do.

This allows us to think through prewire options that might make sense to reduce overall labor content.  For example, if you know you'd like to have speakers in the backyard under the eaves, but see this as a future phase.  It might make sense to prewire to the rear speaker locations in the family room and leave the wire there for that future phase.  Why do double work?

Quote Summary

The first page contains the quote summary.  This is the total for all zones (rooms) by phase with a simple phase description listed and rolled up into a grand total.  It includes non-TV equipment sub-total, TV equipment sub-total, sales tax (if applicable), labor (includes state recycling fee if installed in California) and grand total for all zones (rooms) and all phases.  Don't let this scare you.  It's very typical for a customer to call about a TV and end up with a quote for a surround sound system and several zones of speakers.  This could be significantly higher than the TV you were thinking about getting.  Remember, this a just a first pass, rough draft so we can determine all the things you want to do or may want to do eventually.  We can easily put a plan together that is done in phases and spread it out over whatever time fits you budget.  We've had customers that completed 5 phases over 3 years!

How Each Zone Is Quoted

Each zone is given a room name and it appears at the top of the each zone along with a summary of that zone that includes non-TV equipment sub-total, TV equipment sub-total, sales tax (if applicable), labor (includes state recycling fee if installed in California) and grand total for that zone.

There are no phase totals by zone.  Phase totals are carried to the front summary page and can only be viewed in aggregate.  By changing a phase number, only the totals on the summary page are changed.  Phases are listed in the second from the farthest left hand column. 

Standard Phasing

Phasing is usually a function of the goals of the job.  Some people know exactly what they want and want to do it all at once.  We call this the simple single phase quote.

Other quotes are split into a "do it now" and a "future" phase.  These two phase quotes are the most common.

When dealing with typical remodel or new construction projects, we usually split into three phases: Prewire, Trim and Component.  The Prewire phase contains all the speakers, video, network, phone, cable and satellite wiring and labor.  This is done AFTER the rough electrical, HVAC, Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers are inspected but before insulation and alarm.  The trim phase contains all the speakers, volume controls, A/B switches and low voltage trim plates and labor to install them. It is usually completed after all wall texturing and painting is complete.  The component phase is saved for last and is usually completed when you don't expect to have any more sub contractors in the house, right before move in.  It includes televisions, TV brackets, A/V receivers, Blu-Ray DVD players, Apple TV's, final cable connections, remote controls and RF hubs and their related labor.