One of the most common questions we get is, "Is the price of plasmas coming down?" We usually say yes, it inches down.

Well, it has just fallen off the cliff! Panasonic has just introduced its new 50" Pro Plasma for $2500. The prior model was $6500! The features are fewer, but the picture performance is the same.

Panasonic has a good support network in place. It is indeed an age old, solid "name brand" company- and this is their best plasma- a nice step above the consumer line you’ll see at the superstores.

As in past writings, we warn you to avoid the off brands that you encounter on the web and in the superstores. When your brand X breaks you’ll have no support. The picture doesn’t look so hot even if it works! At that point you’ll have a very expensive mistake- with nobody to fix it. Panasonic has been around forever. We've sold them since plasmas hit the market in 1998.

Recently a very polite lady purchased a nice array of Paradigm surround speakers from us. I asked what she would be running them off. She didn’t know, but her son and a friend ordered a receiver, DVD player and plasma TV off the web. She took the speakers home with her to await the other items for her son to install. I checked back a week later. "How do you like the sound?" Well… it turns out they haven’t been turned on yet. The son signed for the plasma TV when it arrived. But the tip and tell indicator says the plasma has been tossed around some. He got the receiver and DVD player, but they were different model numbers from the ones he ordered. He was trying to decide what to do about this. Oh, and he thought the bracket that mounts the plasma on the wall was included in the price. Nope. It turns out that one of the reasons he inferred the price of the plasma was such a good deal is that the mounting bracket was supposed to be included. But it wasn’t. Not such a good deal now. I asked who was going to install this plasma TV. The kind lady said she thought her son and the family electrician were going to do it. I asked if either had ever done it before. She said, "No, but it can’t be too hard." {Famous last words!} "The electrician has already put the outlet in the wall." I wonder where he put it? The outlet needs to be custom placed for the plasma to be installed! If it is still in the carton… There are a hundred other things to know about getting the system installed properly.

While getting the products right is important, getting them INSTALLED right is equally important. Installing a plasma is real work. We are happy to install products purchased from us. We’ll do it right. We do charge an hourly rate because it is real work to install these systems. But we’re very efficient because we install a good number of them. We don’t install plasmas purchased elsewhere.