Sydney has seen a massive rise in the demand for home theater systems and widescreen, digital-ready TV sets. Australia is experiencing a healthy economy at the moment and continues to modernize. Many shops in the city would love nothing more than to sell you ne of these expensive home entertainment systems and will stop at almost nothing to get you the best system which they have in stock.

But you should not be fooled by most of them.

For starters, the systems offered by most retailers are identical in every respect other than brand name. There are only so many companies making these high end home theater systems, after all. None of these retailers have their own private, secret manufacturer who no one else knows about.

Also, these shops pay their sales personnel on a commission basis, meaning that hey are more occupied with the size of their paycheck than they are with selling you a home theater system which actually meets your needs.

Even worse, they usually won’t install the system for you either. They most likely are not terribly concerned with any idiosyncrasies of your home in regards to the installation of a home theater system, in fact and are simply focused on selling you the most expensive system in the store, or which ever system they need to reduce stock of. It is exceedingly unlikely that you will ever be asked about the wiring in your home or the physical setup of the room in which it will be placed.

The systems which they will try to sell you are generally the most expensive and elaborate ones - these will also take the most effort to set up in your home, If a system is very complex, it must therefore have lots of great features, correct? This is the assumption which sales staff is hoping you will make when looking at home theater systems.

It will present you with a lit of challenge, to say nothing of frustration if you are intending to try setting up one of these systems yourself. All of those wires, all of those components, each of which must be precisely set up and fine tuned. Be sure to pack a lunch and some aspirin as you wrangle with your new home theater system. Worse yet, if you damage something during this process, the warranty likely won’t even cover it.

The company who sold you the system may provide you a referral to a company who will come out and set the system up for you - for a substantial fee; this is not included in the price of the system.

It gets worse: if the setup company does something wrong, the retailer can’t help you at all. And if the system doesn’t fit in your home, the setup company can’t help you with that. If both steps go awry, you lose out big time.

Your best net is to go to a specialty shop for home theater electronics. This will save you untold time, money and headaches.

You can sit down and assess your needs with a independent electronics consultant who will work with you to figure out which system is right for your home and will set up everything for you just right. This will include a guarantee and support over the long term as well.

Don’t even think about buying a home theatre entertainment system until you meet with such a consultant.