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A Plasma Entertainment Center Makes Your Living Room and All-Purpose Destination
Versatility is the buzzword for living rooms these days and a plasma entertainment center is often a necessity, given the increasing popularity of flat screen, lcd and plasma televisions.
In the homes of today, living rooms tend to be family rooms and family rooms tend to be living rooms. Man rooms tend to be both. Media rooms tend to combine elements of all these rooms.What we're saying is the days of a living room that functions only as a gathering place for sitting, talking and entertaining are becoming numbered.
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This tends to be true even in houses that have multiple living areas. The days of the "parlor" are fading. With that in mind, a plasma entertainment center needs to serve many purposes, depending on the size and purpose of the living room.
Some living rooms, because of their size, can only accomodate a small tv stand while for others, a massive entertainment center captures the essence of the room perfectly. Deciding what's best for your space becomes very important, given all the product choices and the various decorating styles that are popularright now.
What's So Big About Plasma?
If a search engine brought you directly to this page, you already know what the big deal about plasma is. For those of you just wandering around the site and happening upon this page, allow us to take a small amount of your time and fill you in.
Plasma TV's utilize technology that is similar to how a fluorescent light bulb works. The television is made of cells, which are glass panels with a pocket of neon-xenon gas in between them. Electrically charge the gas through red, blue and green phosphors and you get a picture.
Plasma TV's are thin and light because they do not require atraditional CRT picture tube. Plasmas can go on a wall, small stand, armoire or entertainment center with ease. That's why they're so attractive these days...and worthy of more discussion.
Here are a couple of fine articles from About.com onthe subject of plasma TV's, and their counterparts, LCD TV's.
Plasma TV Stands
We'll talk about two different plasma entertainment center styles, the stand and the entertainment center. In smaller, or segmented living rooms, a stand could be a great option because of its size and profile.
While entertainment centers can dominate a room, a tv stand just serves its purpose - hold the television and some components underneath. Let's look at some great examples.
Here's a lighter colored casual style with simple, opaque doors and a gentle curve.
Because plasma and LCD TV's require platforms for balance, you can put many different sizes of TV's and on a stand like this one. You may want a wide stand to go with your wide TV, so might we suggest one like we have pictured at the left.
With it's darker color and chameleon-like shape, this is a fantastic choice for a traditional, contemporary or casual themed room. This unit has plenty of space for your components and some media and it's wide, perfect for larger plasma TV's.
Here's one last stand for you traditionalists. This one looks good in cherry and mahogany settings and is traditional without being too ornate.
Plasma stands tend to mimic the TV's that reside atop them inthat they're sleek and somewhat simple. This is good when space is a premium and you don't want the entertainment system to overpower the room.
In a larger living room, or one where the entertainment system is the focal point, an entertainment center just might be what you're looking for. Now let's have a look at the Big Boys!!!
Plasma Entertainment Centers
We love the plasma entertainment center at Jen's dad's house. It's huge, it's country themed, and it's holds a big ol' 52 inch Mitsubishi Plasma HDTV in 1080i. Unfortunately, it just wouldn't work in our home.
In fact, our living room is a bit smaller and dominated by a beautiful stone fireplace. A plasma entertainment center just isn't an option for us. They might be an option for you, though. They come in all design styles and with tons of different ways to display your TV, home theater components and accents.
Let's see...
You may have to let this one grow on you, but if you do, we think you'll fall in love with it. This one is anything but typical. If you are a decorator and you believe that a plasma entertainment center can do much more than hold a TV and DVD player, then give this one it's due. It's open, airy, and can hold lots of accents. It's starting to grow on us...but it's not the only one to choose from.
We've shown you this one already, but let's talk a bit more about it since it's got such a great, majestic and traditional design that reminds us of the plasma entertainment center at Jen's dad's house.
It's imposing, it's grand, it's awesome and the color is ideal for country-themed living rooms. This is the kind of entertainment center that defines a room.
Here's another one that makes a great statement, using a more contemporary look.
The beautiful dark color of the unit is great for contemporary design, it has plenty of room for yourcomponents and media, and the shelf design allows a very sophisticated display of accents.
It will not accommodate all sizes of TV's, so it will not dominate the room. However, its unique shelf displays make it more attractive when balance is one of your living room decorating goals.
We hope we've given you something to think about. With all of these choices in entertainment furniture, how can you go wrong. Choose your favorite and you're on your way to a fantastic home enterainment combination.
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