[a5ehren]

It's for a small carpeted room, about 10'x15'. TV is situated near the center of one of the 15' walls, opposite a couch.


The system will be used mostly for movies and games, occasionally music. Been eying the Onkyo HTS-650, or at least the HT-500 speaker set and buying a Pioneer DX411 or 511 receiver separately.


Feel free to post if you agree or have any suggestions on how to stretch my limited dollar as far as possible!

 

[GregLee]

"Cheap" is my middle name. I've spent $60 on speakers at garage sales and used stores -- $10-$25 dollars a pair. When one doesn't sound good, I go buy another. The ones I'm using now are old 3-way floor standing boxes. I didn't much like the used bookshelf speakers I tried.


Look in your local Radioshack for a receiver similar (possibly identical) to low end Pioneers: RCA STAV-4090 is $250. I have RCA STAV-3990 (which, alas, does not have Dolby ProLogic II) -- you might find it on clearance for $180.


There are some subwoofers for around $100. I have Sony SA-WM20 (from Circuit City). The Sony SA-WM40 is a little more and gets good notices (try my.sony.com and play their point game to save some money). A DLS 10" sub from Parts Express is said to be nice.

 

[westrock]

Heres some ideas


1. JBL Set with this DLS Sub


Price $314 + $100 = $414


2. A more compact JBL All in One


Price $388


3. Can Build two of these Dayton Kits plus one of the DLS subs mentioned above and then add a center channel.


Price $140 + $140 + $100 = $340 plus up to $150 for a center, or even buy another kit and have a center and a rear center for DTS EX or just put your reciever to phantom mode.


4. And last but not least another All-in-one


Price $146.50



Yay, that was fun.

 

[a5ehren]

Thanks for the replies...those kits look like a fun challenge. If anyone else has other ideas, let me know!

 

[jerndl]

I just bought a Sherwood RD6108 5.1 receiver (100 watts x 5) from Circuit City as a Christmas present for my daughter. It was on sale for $99 after rebate and now is on sale for $150. I was stunned to hear how good the receiver sounded considering it's price. I tested it for 2 channel only, but it seems to have most of the features that higher priced models have except it does not do s-video switching. I think an inexpensive receiver is a better choice than the all-on-one units. I also bought a pair of Acoustic Research PS2062 speakers for $69 from a local Recoton (parent of AR) factory outlet. They are also impressive for their price. Good luck. Good deals are out there.


Jay

 

[westrock]

The all in ones I posted above are speaker packages, not the DVD/Reciever/Speaker one.



.....if thats what you thought they were

 

[westrock]

I think those kits would be awsome,as you get a good sized speaker, everythings been taken care of AND you get good crossover components, not cheap little $0.25 bipolar caps that are still lurking in speakers at the $500 range.

 

[JStanton]

I was amazed at the bang/buck ratio of the CSW Megatheater packages.


The cheapest is the 505:

Prog scan DVD player

60 watt/ch amp w/DD & DTS

5 satellites

150 watt 8" powered sub


~$700

http://www.hifi.com/store/category.c...egory=aud_htib


- Jim

 

[ElvisIncognito]

I'm in the process of upgrading now, but I have been "getting by" for about 2 years now with a Boston Acoustics DigitalTheater 6000 system. They no longer make this, but you could probably pick one up on e-Bay for $200-300. (I paid $600 for mine, new.)


Can't say enough about this slick little system - all amplification is in the sub. All audio inputs are on the sub as well (one coax digital, one optical digital and 2 or 3 analog inputs). Center channel speaker has IR receiver and input/volume display. Other 4 speakers are quite small & unobtrusive - they come with wall/ceiling mounts, but they also have threaded inserts in the bottoms - I used to use cheap camera tripods as speaker stands for the front channels - looked really cool. Comes with a nice (simple) uni-remote, too.


All 5 speakers are actively equalized (probably to get the best possible sound out of the cheapest possible drivers.) Unusual approach, but it works - the sound is remarkably good - my guests have often commented on how impressive the sound is from this little system. I don't think B.A. ever published a power spec on this system - only SPL specs; I'm guessing they made the 5 satellites very, very efficient, then used little (15W? 20W?) IC amps. From a technical/construction/circuitry/specification standpoint, they're fairly unimpressive, but the sound... again, WOW!


Highly recommended. I'd put this up against any receiver/sub/5 cheap-ass speaker combo any day of the week. (I did just that, in fact, before I bought it - it sounded far better than the 2 best combo-kits from Sony & Yamaha. I had concerns about its "window-shaking capabilities", so I cranked it up in the middle of a Good Guys store... an entire store full of people stopped what they were doing to give me a dirty look - SOLD! *LOL*)


FWIW - B.A. also made a DT7000. It had a little more power/bigger sub, etc., but the chief difference bewteen the two was DTS - 7000 has it, 6000 does not.