Divinci DV - 2098 Home theater reciever ANY GOOD?

Let me ask you, what does your gut say? What do you think when you walk into a supermarket or flea market and see a suggested retail price on a watch for $200 and it's being sold two for $9.95?

Divinci,

I know him, he is a painter that sells stereo equipment out of a white van.

Not anymore, his new canvas is craigslist and ebay! Caveat Emptor!

And for those of you who don't get the subtle hint! These are junk. DO NOT BUY!!!!

Well, there are always HTIB's and a forum devoted to that. $350 is a tough budget to work with but if you don't want to go HTIB, then perhaps you can sacrifice (it's really not all that bad!) the current crop of features, do without strong 20 Hz output, and look into used equipment. This website, as well as others and that includes craigslist, might provide nuggets to be found. So do garage sales, estate sales, pawn shops, and thrift stores. Also, there's a real interesting thing called www.freecycle.org where people post stuff for free. If it ain't free you can't post. Check it out. How big is the room you're looking to put it in?

IMO you might get a decent (depending on your needs) receiver for that money but forget about speakers

People who have purchased these type of all in one home theater not usually happy campers. At least based on what I have read. You get what you pay for! Go for quality (not all in one) cheap as you can.

Maybe do upgrade in steps. Just be careful what you buy. Hey maybe you would be good with that system. Make sure you can return if it's not up to snuff. It's tough to get receiver and speakers in your price range.

Well I can't say for the Aiwa speakers. But yea, might be better to go with a receiver now and upgrade the speakers later (be careful not to blow the speakers with a new more powerful receiver). I'm a Denon fan for over 10 years now. You might check out big box stores like best buy who sell the Denon. Here is the Denon line a couple in your price range I think:

http://usa.denon.com/productDetails/AVReceivers.asp

scroll to the bottom of the page to find a dealer or shop online that is authorized Denon. Important to buy from authorized dealer listed on Denon web site for warranty coverage.

Others will likely reply with their favorite brand in your price range. You will need to compare features of each and decide.

And check the Ohm rating of your speakers and that the receiver is rated to support.

Here's a good reference that talks about the ohm rating and much more!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=968859

Some members like Harman Kardon. I've read posts where people said they got a good deal on refurbished Harman Kardon. Myself I prefer to have some sort of warranty and generally refurbished doesn't usually come with much of a warranty if any. Never owned a Harman Kardon. Actually all I've ever owned is Denon for many moons. Before that it was ummm Technics (a panasonic brand I think). My Denon 3600 purchased about 10 years ago blew that stuff away. I've seen Denon 3600's selling used for $75 on ebay (think I paid about 1500-2000 new). Good luck getting them shipped. They are 55+lbs. You would need to be real careful with your speakers running a Denon 3600 a powerful thumper. I recently upgraded to a Denon 3808 (about the same power but loaded with the many of the latest features in the price range). Denon builds good stuff has been my experience. Hopefully my 3808 will hold up as well.

Check the sellers, shop around, take your time and look for a great deal. Dealers and stores will sell for less then listed price. In some cases much less! But first narrow down to a couple manufacturers/models. Then go for the best price on the planet.

If you're looking for a decent HTIB, check the Onkyo HT-SR700, between $280 and $350 on Am*zon depending on the color.

Sure, good luck in your search!

The Di Vinci speakers are a scam! One of my boys just fell for it yesterday at a gas station. Some guy driving an Escalade approached him, and offered him these "great" 7.1 system(MSRP $3,500) for $1,500. He came up with these story about how he installs them the whole day and that he just happened to get an extra box that he needed to unload. After my friend refused, the guy offered them for $300 and my boy took the bait. He showed him this glossy magazine which showed the MSRP of $3,500. Well, that MSRP means nothing when that same system sells "buy it now" on Ebay for $189, or you can get it from the manufacturer for about $50!

Honestly with your budget just < $400 I would either

A - Keep checking shoponkyo.com for the Onkyo 800 refurb system. It's not in stock right now but they update their site frequently, many have picked these up in the $300 range recently. Comes with a solid stand alone reciever and factory warranty.

or if you don't want to go the htib route

B - Onkyo 304 receiver refurb from shoponkyo, 2 pair of Polk R150s and the CSR center from outpost.com. Should be able to get that < $300, then save until you can get the Velodyne VX10 or Bic H-100 sub (150-200). The 304 has less features than the receiver in the 800 htib system but still a solid budget receiver and the speakers will be better than HTIB.

I would also check out local pawn shops and find yurself a decent 5 channel reciever with DD and DTS decoding for about 100.00 (Pawn shops have many older models that run great at that price, although older were very good a few years ago. Then use the reamining 200.00 for a pair of decent mains, if good at soldering you can buy a decent pair of DIYer bookshelf speakers. From there slowly and surely I would just add to that system. Get a sub next, then center and finally rear speakers. Buying slowly you can choose how much you want to spend and when. Better to buy a pair of good Mains then a crappy HTIB which from what it sounds, won't even come close to filling that room of yours.

I also like Jakemans option B, that sounds like a great idea.

Hey villainstone, ive been reading your posts and i can relate to your problem. what i would sugest is to buy things a piece at a time as you can afford it. i recently got new PC speakers for my computer, i got the Kilpsch pro media 2.1 its 2 spkrs and a sub, but man it sounds good! although it can distort in the thumpage at higher volumes but it has alot of bass and crisp highs. best of all the 3 piece set was only 120 or so bucks. I know they make the same thing in a surrond set-up, what i was thinking is you could pick up the 5 piece setup and then use some of the other guys suggestions for your HT reciever. they would sound well in a HT setup till you can afford better spkrs and when you replace them you can use them on you PC.

klipsch.com/products/lists/computer-speakers.aspx

theres the link to there website. I just noticed that the price went up on there site but you should be able to find them a bit cheaper at one of there dealers or at one of the 'big box stores'.

i think best buy sells them so you could check out the sound for yourself there.
best of luck to you! "Taz"