Denon AVR-S700W Review: Great features and sound, questionable reliability

This is a very nice receiver with impressive features and great sound at a great price. However, because I had an annoying repair (during the warranty period) you may want to be a bit cautious about the quality. Especially if you don't live near one of their repair centers.

I purchased my receiver new at Best Buy in June 2014. It was very easy to set up and configure. It even includes a nifty feature for optimizing the speaker volume levels for your specific room and seating arrangement. The sound quality was amazing and the power was plenty for a small to medium-size room. We enjoyed about seven months of trouble free listening.

Unfortunately, without warning the display stopped working. It went completely dark although the audio features seemed to work normally and the sound continued to be excellent. Since it was still under warranty I contacted customer service to find a repair center. This is where I have an issue.

First, the customer care line was a voicemail so I started a chat session. Without reading too much into it, let's just say the personality of my rep was "cold." I was just sent a pdf of repair center locations without so much as a "I'm sorry our product failed you so soon. Here's what we can do to help."

I boxed up the receiver and shipped it via FedEx Ground ($80!) The repair center in Rockaway New Jersey did a great job and shipped it back within a matter of days. I reconnected everything and M back to happy listening.

The packing slip in the box indicated that a bad 0.1A fuse was replaced. Knowing that fuses cost a few pennies, I really wasn't happy that this cost me about $100 even though the receiver was under warranty. I probably should have used UPS instead of FedEx Ground.

In summary, I love this unit but I am worried that the display fuse may go bad again out of warranty. At that point it may be cheaper to buy another product.

Here is the link to Denon's AVR-S700W product page: http://usa.denon.com/us/product/hometheater/avreceiversht/avrs700w

Be more productive by following the simple rule of 3

I've read dozens of self-help books searching for the elusive magic bullet for becoming more productive. What I've learned is that there are hundreds of list of the Top 10 or Top 15 things you should do every day...go ahead and Google the top things you should do and you'll see these long, long, lists.

I don't know about you but I function best by keeping things as simple as possible. I've found that it's best to focus on just the three most important things you have to do at any one time.

Little did I know that there is research about this subject as well. They call it "The Rule of 3" and it is based around the concept that we function best around that number of things. In fact, Steve Jobs either innately or purposefully based his presentations around three. It is also a basic writing and oratorical concept:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_three_%28writing%29#Rhetoric_and_public_speaking

Take a look at this great productivity blog for starters and start practicing your own "Rule of 3" today. Let me know what it does for you:

http://alifeofproductivity.com/rule-of-three/

I can't believe I'm admitting this but, I need readers.

I'll be 49 this year. I've worn glasses, well contact lenses 95% of the time, since I was 22 years old. My vision has always been about 20/30 meaning that I need glasses to see things far away. Things that are within an arms length or so have always looked fine and I've never needed glasses to see things close-up.

I've watched my parents and older relatives start to deal with readers in their '40's but somehow I didn't. There's no use in speculating why other than I don't watch much television. My work days are spent starting at various computer screens though. Since getting a smartphone and iPad, I probably spend way too much time staring at those screens...mainly for reading as I'm not a fan of watching movies on those devices (nor do I have the time.)

Because I wear contacts for distance correction, they help my eyes focus on things that are far away. The muscles in my eyes have always been able to contract to view things up close clearly even with the contacts in. However, something seems to have changed just in the last week and I find myself reaching for readers to see things on both my iphone screen and, for the first time just a few minutes ago, on my laptop screen.

I guess no matter how hard we try and outrun him, Father Time catches up with everyone.

Buying Cheap Lightning Cables, So Not Worth It!

For the record, I've always had success avoiding the Verizon and Apple tax on accessories by ordering from eBay. For at least 10 years this has served me more than very well and I've ordered very nice chargers, cases, etc. not only for myself, but for friends and family.

But I have been having a bad case of fragile or DOA lightning cables ever since getting my iPhone 5S.

Mind you, I've had genuine Apple, Belkin MFi certified, and generic knock-offs from eBay. The generic ones are the worst, being non-certified, several of them were DOA.

I just ordered a metallic reinforced cable from i-Blason on Amazon.com for $15. Will update this post with my experience.

Here's an interesting article on another guy's experience with cheapo cables
http://www.cnet.com/news/why-im-done-buying-cheap-lightning-cables/

Dinner conversation about the end game for wealth inequality and revolution

I think our civilization needs to look back at what happens when tremendous amounts of wealth are concentrated into the hands of the few. Yes, in an aspirational society that is the ultimate outcome. But can we avoid catastrophe or revolution by being cognizant of the "endgame?" Can the elite be convinced that we need to find a better way?

In a capitalistic society, the clever will always find a way to escalate and there will always be that segment that dwells at the bottom, living off of the generosity of the middle and rich. But extreme disparity is just wrong.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dalearcher/2013/09/04/could-americas-wealth-gap-lead-to-a-revolt/

Jared Diamond: Why do societies collapse?
http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse/transcript?language=en

Garmin File Won't Upload to Garmin Connect ---->The Easy Solution!

I did a short trainer ride this morning and synched my Garmin 910XT right afterwards as usual. But for some reason that particular file wouldn't upload to Garmin Connect. I could see it on my device, but it wouldn't upload! I even checked the local file directory to see if maybe the .fit file was stuck on my pc. I then deleted and re-installed Garmin Express to no avail.

After a few frustrating hours of synching unsuccessfully, I found a possible solution on a forum. There is a function on the 910XT device to manually "force" an upload of all of the files on the device:

Mode--->History--->Tranfer All

To my delight and surprise, upon synching again one final time my file finally appeared as if nothing was wrong in the world. Whew!

Don't give up

I wrecked my bike last week and got a concussion that has given me double vision. I fully believe I will he'll be back on my bike sometime down the road I don't know when but someday.

Over the last week more than one person has question why I keep bike riding at the age of 48. You have so much to lose they tell me. Sure I question it myself but if I wasn't able to swim bike and run and challenge myself i'm not sure what I would do. It's not that I'm any good at it I frequently finish in the middle or upper third of my age group if I'm lucky. But coming from someone without an athletic background I'm just so proud of being able to do these events at all that they have become a huge part of my personality and my life.