Helping a friend with his entry level HT, need advice

You could also run 4 of the Polk R150's
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/496...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

and the CSR center channel
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/496...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I've never heard these but they look cool and probably sound decent.
http://www.streemspeakers.com//ht-33.asp

Make sure he leave some money for good audio and video cables as well as nice speaker wire which you can get from monoprice.com

I haven't heard those exact Polk R models but generally speaking athena speakers are more forward in their sound with more emphases and detail in the higher frequencies, some will even say they are bright and don't like them for this reason and some like me love them for this reason. It's up to the user.

Polks are more of a warm sounding speaker and not as forward in their sound.

I have Athenas on 2 systems one with a Pioneer receiver and the other with Onkyo and love the sound.

The only thing I would change in that setup is the sub. I'd go with the Bic H-100 which is a much better sub at $200 which would put you slightly over budget with the Athena setup but not to much if you find a good deal on the 605 reciever. If you decide to go with the Athena setup and budget is an issue I'd even hold off on the rears or center for a while and get the H-100.

Or you could get the polk system now with the Bic H-100 within budget and even move up to the Polk R50 or R300 floorstanding speaker up front if you wanted and still be within budget. The price they have on the R series is crazy good right now.

I'm not big into HTIB, but if a deal comes along. Onkyo's 894 htib is onsale (i believe it's been disco'd) for like $350 i heard, plus a free stereo receiver. It's a refurb and it's on shoponkyo.com. Nothing special, and it's not a new Onkyo receiver, but it would get him started and he could slowly upgrade it piece by piece as he gets into it.

Accessories4less.com has the 605 for $349 + shipping, they are refurbished that come with factory warranty.

Shoponkyo.com also has refurbished often but the site updating now I can't log into see what they have listed.

Shoponkyo.com is usually a better pricing in the end they offer free shipping and $10 off first purchase after signing up with the website, plus right now they have a 10% off holiday sale going on.

Getting the 605 and then spending so little on speakers is not the best use of the $. I would pick up a receiver at Ecost. Get one of the entry level Denon's or the Onkyo 505. Spend $175 or so on the receiver. E-bay is blowing out the JBL L series speakers. I purchased the L830,L810s, and a LC1 for $425 shipped-normally $2k. I tried the Polk R series and did not care for them.

Check out E-bay, audiogon, Ecost, etc. If you are careful, you could really stretch the $800 budget.

Whatever you do, DON'T get a receiver without HDMI connections if HT is what it's going to be used for.

Also for receivers consider HK. For my basement, I just picked up an avr335 for $200. Depending upon the BR or HD DVD players you can use the multi channel channel inputs and let the player decode the audio.

Also, Ecost did have refurbished 605's for $249. I have had great success with their refurbs.

I disagree. There are so many ways around this.

Why spend so much just for HDMI when the budget is so small? I am using a Yamaha DSP-A1 in my living room. I paid $300 for it. Yes, it is 7 years old but it was a $3k unit. I would take it with its processing and especially the amp section over a budget receiver with HDMI any day.

I picked up an HDMI switcher from Monoprice which easily switches between HD cable and my HD DVD player.


I had a similar budget for my living room. I went the Flea-bay route and bought the new JBL L series. Again, I was able to "win" a pr of L830's for mains, LC1 center, and L810's for surrounds. Cost me $425 shipped-these are all perfect and direct from Harman. I then spent $300 on the DSp-A1. This left me with $75 for a Universal RF20 remote.

The original MSRP for this set WAS $5150. Granted the DSP-A1 is dated but I have had a HK avr635,435,430,247, Onkyo 502,505, 604, 804, Yamaha RX-V1, 4600, 2500, 5890, etc to compare to.

Would you rather spend your money on a new TX-SR605 and some cheap Polk R150s or R50's? The performance is not even close. I purchased a set of R50's, csi25, and 2 prs of R150s from Frys. I just gave them to my father. No comparison.

I just sold a set of Klipsch RF-35's, RC-7, and RS-35's as a direct comparison to the JBL's. Performance is equal IMO.

Ecost is out of the 605. They have the 575 though. BTW, they do have a tx-sr804 for $467.

Performance is equal right up until you want to hear lossless 5.1, DTS-HD, or DD+ tracks from your HD media. I suppose you could spend $500 on a HD-DVD or Blu-ray player with analogue out...

You can. My original post was about making sure to get a reciever with an HDMI connection. 1.1 will do just fine. The post I was replying to was a rebuttal that implied HDMI isn't that big a deal.

i have seen the the 605 at amazon for $380.... just keep checking..

$500? I spent $150 for a new HD DVD player with analog outputs (A1) on the Bay. You can easily find a newer model HD DVD player for $200 with analog outputs. Blu-ray is more money regardless. I understand what you are saying. We all have different priorities. No right or wrong-just preference.

From a money persective, I just think you get more. Right now I have an A2
feeding audio into the DSP-a1 via optical. No, its not the newer codecs but I would rather invest in speakers now. I would think you would be better off even using a slightly used receiver with a speaker deal such as the JBL's. Would DTS-HD or DD+ plus sound better through Polk R150's than DD or DTS through a decent set of speakers and better amp?

Also for receivers, Ecost is selling JVC former flagship series. These are the true 50 pound units, not the digital units.

They had the JVC 401s series hybrid digital amps for $115 awhile back. These had HDMI upconversion and Faroudja processing. I bought two and they were decent. Maybe a possible stop-gap?

Athena Micra 6 speakers, great speaker set for a good price.

It was just $304 shipped on ShopOnkyo.com but sold out very quickly.

I fortunately snagged one up and will sell it for $500.

Athena makes good little subs, I had a AS-P4000 which is the same as the 4100 except for cosmetic changes and loved it for sound quality, very musical punchy and articulate, probably my favorite to date in that regard but it's seriously lacking in any kind of headroom, it reaches it's limit fast and can be overdriven easily. If your friend listens at normal to moderate volumes levels in a smallish to mid size room, great choice anything other than that keep looking.

I'd also look past the Dayton 12". I demoed it for 3 weeks before I sent it back, it was the complete opposite of the of Athena, plenty of output, would shake the foundation but that's all it would do, one noted, muddy and boomy. For stictly HT It'll shake things up during explosions, for music or any other thing where detail is deisred, keep looking.

As I said earlier imo the Bic H-100 is the way to go, it's only slightly higher in price at $200 than the other offerings talked about and a big upgrade in performance. To get above it performance wise you'd have to jump to the $350 and over offerings from ED, HSU and SVS, which is a much bigger leap in price than the subs talked about here.

The sub and speakers will make a much bigger difference in overall performance of the system than the receiver and due to the subs size and weight, it's a pain to upgrade, ship, return etc. Paying a little more now to get something that will satisify him longer is money saved in the long run, even if he has to hold off on something else in the system for a while to get it or go with a lessor priced receiver, refurb receivers with factory warranty can be found at accessories4less.com or shoponkyo.com and provide a great bang for the buck.

LMAO, I'm sure, let me know how that works for you and I'll snag a couple next sale. Gotta love a profit margin

Great previous post for the OP by the way. I was looking at cheaper options, specifically with subs and was seriously considering the Dayton, but knowing that I could've upgraded to something considerably better, i.e. the BIC H100, for only $100 more solidified my decision.

Rave reviews and it should last quite awhile...

Good luck!

A friend of mine recently had a similar situation. He is the kind of guy that researches diligently before commiting his money. He ended up buying the Harman Kardon AVR 347 and the HK-18 5.1 speaker set and is very satisfied with the performance and quality of this setup. He paid under $800.00 for both.

It will do great. It won't be as tight as some of the slightly more expensive subs ($300+), but for the price point I think the consensus is that it's hands down the winner.

$239 shipped for a quality piece isn't bad...IMO. =)