Proper Home Theater Equipment Ratio

I generally agree with it. I would say more like 25-50% for the AVR. Lets say you put 2000 into speakers, you should get a very nice receiver, or nice receiver + amp.

For the display, that's more preference imo, I have a 1.5k Sharp, and while I could have gotten the more expensive Samsung, I'm plenty satisfied with it. I don't need the $10k Elite series.

For subs meh, maybe not as much as the fronts combined. This is more preference too I guess.

I think you are setting yourself up for one of those situations where "All generalizations are false".

For example, display costs relate to display size, but display size relates to your room and seating situation as well as your preferences.

A different situation evolves when the system is very low cost. If you need an AVR for a low cost system you will probably find that a quality AVR is going to run over $200 no matter how little you spend on the speakers or the rest of the system.

There are other price floors. If you spend much less than $400 for speakers for a 2.1 system, its quality is probably going to suffer pretty badly.

Diminishing returns sets in at different price points depending on the kind of equipment. I can see spending $thousands on speakers but never much more than $200 on a Blu Ray player for use with an AVR.

There is an inherent fallacy in trying to rigidly map price into quality.

I think I've agreed with you that the investment in sub(s) should at least match what is spent on the fronts.

Cable costs vary tremendously depending on whether your system arrangement needs them to be routed through the walls.

If you choose to buy your own mics and measurement equipment for system tuning, then spending extra for a feature like Audyssey Multieq XT32 may be a waste.

I would say that the ratio varies depending on the budget.

If you had a total system budget of $600, the ratio would be different than for a budget of $3000 or $5000.

But to take a $3000 budget for a complete 5.1 system as an example, I would advise anyone who asked me to spend about $400 to $600 on a sub, $1800 to $2000 on 5 speakers, and around $600 for a receiver.

If someone had a $5000 budget, I would get very specific and say $1300 for a Cambridge 551R receiver, $3000 for a set of 5 Gallo Acoustics speakers, and $700 for an NHT B12D subwoofer. The reason for that is that I do not think there is any other combination of equipment that can equal it for the same price; none.

Commsysman brings up a good point, the first thing you really need to do is set your total budget and then break down what you're going to spend on a AVR, sub, LCR and surrounds.

Listen to what Arnyk is telling you. It's hard to generalize into a simple set of rules.

Also, subwoofer performance is very dependent on room size. So if you have very big room, you will likely need to spend significantly more money on the sub than in a small room to get the equivalent performance.

It may also be wise to budget some for room treatments which may go further towards improving the sound than expensive equipment. Of course, some rooms need more help thn others, do estimating cost is fruitless.

It depends on how deep your pocket book is, and your tastes in equipment.

It really comes down to what you are looking for - your expectations - a lot depends on your budget.
Are you still looking at Bic speakers and subwoofer - and places like Crutchfield and Amazon.

However I would not over spend on a receiver, or amp and Bluray player - and I do not believe your
display should be as much as your entire system.

+1 ^^^ What they said