Cabling nightmare

This is how I feel today.... tired, but have to work...

Been tinkering with my home theatre set-up the past few nights. I am not an audiophile in anyway, but would just like to have some A/V stuff to complement my movie watching and enjoy music in general. And D-I-Y is NOT my forte...

Got the Accoutimass Bose 6 Series III speakers (coz I am in a pretty small apartment), and later found out online that most audiophiles bash Bose products... hooked it up to a Sony A/V receiver, a pretty basic model, STR-DE598. Got a pretty good deal on a Sony Grand Wega 42" LCD projector TV earlier, and a simple Samsung DVD/VCR combo.

The nightmare begins... first, cabling. Have anyone tried figuring out which cable goes where? Or even what cable to get, to begin with? First, I found out that audio cables and video cables are separate ones (after the first night). And they come in different standards. Audio has 'RCA', 'coaxial' and 'digital' (in increasing order of quality), and video has 'composite video', 'S-video' and 'component video'. Then, I found out that the manuals were so misleading, the diagrams indicating that I needed 'cable A' AND 'cable B', when it is 'A' OR 'B', so I got extra cables I don't need (after the 2nd night). So, I had to return some extra video cables to the shop, and exchange for some audio ones. And the fella in the shops were no help too... they don't know what they are talking about....

Finally, hooked it all up last night (3rd night) .... and the sound is disappointing.... sounds like (*pun intended*) the Bose-bashing audiophiles online were right....
(their chant is: 'no high, no low, must be Bose' or that
BOSE stands for '
Buy
Other
Sound
Equipment')

Now, I am considering to return the Bose speakers and get the recommended Polk RM6800 speaker set for newbies. Or maybe I just hook them up wrong... getting help is expensive, about $200 just to set up. Feel like screaming.....

So, that's my face up there last night... not really lah! I took this shot in San Diego, in the facade of a beautiful building complex, part of the historical California Tower, now used as the Musuem of Man. There is a saint stepping on his head in the facade, so I am guessing his headache is probably worse than mine. So, I am not that bad off...