Do you really need to spend that much money on a single HDMI cable? Absolutely not—those cables are a rip-off. You should never pay more than $10 for a standard six-foot HDMI cable. And despite what salesmen and manufacturers might tell you, there's no meaningful difference between the $10 cable and the $50 cable...The editors at CNET are so confident that cheap HDMI cables offer identical performance, we've been using inexpensive Monoprice HDMI cables in the CNET Home Theater Lab for more than a year with no issues.

So tonight I went to my local Best Buy, planning on surprising the wife with a new bigscreen TV.

We get there and, believe it or not, the Best Buy people are helpful, friendly, informative and DON'T try to push Monster cables on me. (I know - I nearly fainted too).

Having done my homework, I picked out a receiver, speaker system, wall mount, some blue ray movies , and a 58" plasma TV. Total cost : $5870.69

So I head to the register to pay for my newly acquired goodies and my card - despite having a few grand more than the total in my "available funds" is declined.

Puzzled - I call Bank of America , wait on hold about ten minutes, go through countless adverts for bank services, double authorizations etc and FINALLY I get to a human. Of course in spite of all of this the woman wants my information all over again even though I just typed it in. She wont even help me til I provide it and so I do.

I explain that I am in the store, at the register, and that I know I have available funds.

She puts me on hold about 5 minutes , then comes back and says "Im sorry - that's over your daily limit. There's nothing I can do. Was there anything else I can help you with?"

Remembering to keep a cool head, I ask about a supervisor giving me an override on the limit. She says "let me transfer you to the ATM department." And before I can explain that this isn't an ATM problem, she disconnects me.

Frustrated - I dial again, more menus, get a human, get transferred, get another human, get transferred, (every time re-verifying my ID)finally I get to the FOURTH person who apologizes 10 times and says "don't worry sir - I can help you!"

I think I'm getting somewhere but then a supervisor comes on and explains to me that "Everyone in the United States that uses Bank of America has a daily spending limit of 5000.00 no matter what."

Stunned, I ask for an exception and in a parent-giving-me-a-cookie tone he says "well, I suppose we can up that to 6000.00 just this once."

At this point I am over an hour on the phone but we try the transaction again. Declined.

More hold time. He comes back and says that he is sorry but 6000. is the limit and buying gasoline and dinner earlier in the day is going to put me at more than 6 grand for the day and so I can come back tomorrow and buy the TV or I can go to my branch and get a money order.

Fuming, and doing my best to remain calm, the conversation goes like this:

"Let me get this straight - I have an "available" balance of nearly 10 grand in my account?"

"yes sir"

"And its not pending or a deposit waiting to clear, that's my money, confirmed and in your bank?"

"yes sir"

"And you have kept me on the phone for over an hour, asked me multiple times to verify my identity and are satisfied that I am who I say I am?"

"yes sir"

"And you are going to deny me access to MY money?!?!"

"No sir - we are not denying you your money, your're just over your daily limit."

"My daily limit? This isn't a credit card. It's a PLATINUM Visa checkcard. I understand that you have to put limits in for my protection but I need to make this purchase"

"Im sorry theres nothing I can do"

At this point, after nearly an hour an twenty minutes on the phone, I lose my cool. I am embarrassed, have essentially shut down a register lane on a Friday night at Best Buy and am obviously the talk of the store both from employees and customers.

I ask to speak to a supervisor and am told that I am speaking to one. I ask to speak to HIS supervisor and am told that's not possible.

Out of desperation I ask again and he says "wait just a moment"

More hold. Ten more minutes. I am fuming. He comes back and excitedly tells me "try it now."

So for the umpteenth time I swipe my card. This time it comes up "authorization code needed"

I relay this to the BoA guy and he says "well, we are making progress"

A few more minutes of hold time later and he comes back with the code and makes my purchase go through.

I have NEVER experienced such shoddy customer service ever. Im sure Im preaching to the choir when I say this, but Monday morning I am cancelling my BoA account, and fellow consumerists - Stay the heck away from Bank of America!

As a side note, after the transaction was completed I said to the supervisor, "So, what if I was say, Donald Trump and wanted to spend 30 grand on something?"

His response, " Well , for Mr Trump we would have made an accommodation ahead of time."

I said "And if I'd decided tonight to buy the $14,999.99 71" plasma TV in here this evening?"

"You wouldn't not have been allowed to do that."

At that point I hung up.

Sheesh!

(Photo: Getty)

The question was posed in response to two incendiary articles in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times which argued that improvements in compression technology have made sound quality irrelevant. Slate answered by redefining the question:

If you want the mere gist of music; if you like music wafting in the background; if you want to carry around 1,000 songs in your pocket; if you want to hear a beat and a melody while you jog or ride on the subway—and that's often what any of us want (even me)—then MP3s are plenty good enough. Convenience doesn't merely trump quality; it is quality.

But there are some things that only a really good home stereo, playing well-recorded CDs or vinyl LPs, can give you: the texture of an instrument (the woodiness of a bass, the golden brass of a trumpet, the fleshy skin of a bongo); the bouquet of harmonics that waft from an orchestra (the mingling overtones, the echoes off the concert hall's walls); the breath behind a voice; the warm percussiveness of a Steinway grand; the silky sheen of massed violins; the steely whoosh of brushes on a snare; the undistorted clarity of everything sung, blown, strummed, bowed, plucked, and smacked, all at once—in short, the sense that real musicians are playing real instruments in a real space right before you.

In Defense of Audiophiles [Slate]
(AP Photo/Hans Punz)

.....and costs $169! For that much money, you'd think they'd bother to hook up your TV using the provided HDMI cable. And maybe hook up the surge protector you purchased. And maybe program your remote. Joe writes:

...They also bought an expensive Monster home theater surge protector. It's the kind that has connectors for the coax cable from Comcast so that you can protect from surges over the broadband line. Except, Firedog decided this wasn't worth doing. The cable went from the wall directly to the back of the cable box, bypassing the surge protector entirely.

While I was back there, I figured out why the picture didn't look as crisp as it should have. They had the cable box connected to the TV with component video cables. I went over to the table where my parents had all the owners manuals along with two cables: an unused coax cable (which of course was intended for the surge protector) and an unused HDMI cable!

Lastly, they didn't bother to program the codes for their TV into the Comcast universal remote.

Joe writes:

Hi Consumerist team,

I love your site, I've been reading it for a long time now. After reading your complaints about Best Buy's Geek Squad service, I wanted to sound off about a similar service, Circuit City's "Firedog", which apparently staffs the same caliber of "technicians". Thought you'd be interested to know and maybe pass on to the readers to warn them before paying the $169 for home theater installation.

Last week my parents bought their first HDTV. They weren't comfortable setting it all up themselves, so against my advice they had Firedog set it up for them. My mother told me the next day that they seemed very hurried but everything seemed OK - except they didn't think the HDTV channels looked as nice as when they watched HDTV channels when visiting my apartment. So I figured I would come over and inspect Firedog's handiwork.

First of all, they also bought an expensive Monster home theater surge protector. It's the kind that has connectors for the coax cable from Comcast so that you can protect from surges over the broadband line. Except, Firedog decided this wasn't worth doing. The cable went from the wall directly to the back of the cable box, bypassing the surge protector entirely.

While I was back there, I figured out why the picture didn't look as crisp as it should have. They had the cable box connected to the TV with component video cables. I went over to the table where my parents had all the owners manuals along with two cables: an unused coax cable (which of course was intended for the surge protector) and an unused HDMI cable!

Lastly, they didn't bother to program the codes for their TV into the Comcast universal remote.

Now, according to their services page http://www.firedog.com/ht_install.html , the standard service includes "remote consolidation" and "connect all new and existing A/V components". I guess CORRECTLY connecting A/V components is an optional service.

-Joe

This may be another case of "just pay the neighbor kid." For $169 your neighbor kid will probably hook up your TV, install wifi, mow your lawn, wash your cat and program your remote. Seriously.—MEGHANN MARCO

A Duke University student has figured out which speakers to mute in order to filter out the announcers. So simple, so deadly, so inside.

If you are sick and tired of listening to Vitale, and you are fortunate enough to have access to an audio receiver + surround sound speakers, here is an easy and 100% effective way to eliminate Vitale and Patrick from your viewing experience. If the game is being broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1 (not sure if that means the game has to be in high def or not, the audiophiles on the board can correct me), the audio is divided up such that the rear channels are *only* the ambient crowd and stadium noises.

On a whim during the Indiana game, I muted the front-left, front-center, front-right, and subwoofer - leaving only my rear channels. To my delight, the only sound remaining was that of Cameron: sneakers squeaking on the hard wood, the crowd shouting, and the occasional PA announcement. You don't hear a peep out of ESPN! If you already have a surround sound setup, you should test this out (unless you enjoy hearing Vital sing 'Hear Comes Santa Claus').

We're trying this next Monday. We are so excited. Go Bears. —MEGHANN MARCO

You Can't Hear Me Baby!!!!!!!! [Awful Announcing]