Tongfamily Website

Much has changed in the five (!!!) years since I bought my last home theater components, so here’s an update on all the major pieces:
Amplifiers
Way back when the thing was to get a big gigantic amplifier. Personally, I tended to a compact AVR and then having amplifiers in the speakers. So I ended up with [...]

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If you were to build a Home Theater today, it would be much different from a few years ago. Here is what I’d get:

Epson 1080p projector. We just got one for the office. Kind of a miracle of technology
MacBook Blu Ray. Ok, this hasn’t shipped yet, but if you look at it a MacBook has [...]

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Be the first on your block to have a backpack with solar panels on it. Generates 14.7 watts in direct sunlight, so it isn’t crazy, but if you leave for a day in Arizona, you might get a laptop charge. $249 for the Backpack. I don’t know how durable the panesl are for someone [...]

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There are so many brands of CFL (Compact Florescent Lamps) and other energy efficient LEDs that it is hard to know where to start.
Consumer Reports bulb
They have done the most intense study including running the bulbs to see how long they last. It cost $26 per year for a subscription to their site and another [...]

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Some great real world lessons here. They are in short, you can’t use them in a can, with a dimmer or where you are turning them on and off alot. (That’s a lot of limitations), but they do save 4x in power. Check out 1000Bulbs.com and stay about from the $1-2/bulb ones. You have to [...]

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There are zillion new CFLs around and it is so confusing. Popular Mechanics did a review of them that seems to be the only up to date one. Going to Loews was so confusing. They cost between $1-$12 each and the lifetimes, colors and so forth seem so different. Here’s a quick summary:

CFLs use 70% [...]

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