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Audiphiles need suggestions: ~$500 to spend on a budget HT system

S

soccerbud34

Senior member
to all audiophiles ... my dad just purchased a Sony Wega KV-32 FS17 today and he is looking @ building himself a budget HT system for ~$500 ... and i am clueless when it comes to home entertaining .... so all you audiophiles ... please help! 🙂

Thank you!
 
What's he looking for? Speakers and receiver? For cheapo audio system, my usual suggestion - Energy Take 5 (400-450) and a Denon, Marantz, Onkyo or Harman Kardon receiver for 150-200.
 
He is looking for about 5 speakers and a receiver .... he told me he is not worried about a sub woofer ... but i am trying to convince him to get one 🙂

Currently i am looking @ a couple HT packages such as the Pioneer HTD-510DV and the JBL Northridge NSP-1


 
also one question ... with this tight budget ... should i stay with a HT Package from JBL or Sony or should i and buy the speakers, receivers, and sub woofers one by one?
 
With that budget you won't get much if you buy it piece by piece... I'd suggest looking at one of the package deals...

OT: Why is it that people will spend megabucks on a decent TV but want to cheap out on the audio side? Good TVs aren't that cheap, so good audio probably won't be either...

Dave
 
if i was viperoni id say build it yourself (which is a heck of a lot of fun and the best use of your money).

otherwise pick up an energy take5.2 home theater in a box system. youll need to add a subwoofer later. youll also need a reciever to drive the speakers. check out the harman kardon avr45 for $279 at harmanaudio.com.

also check out PSB Alpha series speakers. you can probably find a good deal on them as well. yawaonline.com
 
what can i say ... my father is more of an audiophile than videophile hehe ... he can live with 15 yr old speakers not but 15 yr old TV 😛

Anyways, are there certain models of HT packages that you guys would recommend? 🙂
 
PSB Alpha A/V is probably a better way to go than the Energy Take 5. yawaonline.comhas them for $170 a pair. grab two pairs and the matching Alpha center for $150 and youre at the same price or less than the energy system. heres a clip from the PSB review from Stereophile magazine.

"Conclusions
The last inexpensive speaker I spent time with was the B&W DM302, now priced at $300/pair. With its stylish plastic molding, the English speaker definitely makes the little PSB look utilitarian. But the sound's the thing, right? While the B&W remains a favorite of mine, the PSB Alpha A/V joins it in sounding astonishingly better than it has any right to at the price. Paul Barton has carefully managed the design compromises inherent at this price level to produce a speaker that faithfully serves the music it plays. Highly recommended, the Alpha now deserves a Class-D rating in "Recommended Components." "

entire article

 
for reciever id say go with marantz, denon, harman-kardon, outlaw, yamaha, onkyo. different recievers color the music differently. listen to a couple with the same speakers and youll hear the difference. hooked my harman-kardon up side by side with my marantz and there was a noticable difference.

denon avr1802, harman-kardon avr45, outlaw 1050, onkyo 494. you may be able to catch a good deal on ubid, esp on onkyo
 
you can straight up by the onkyo 494 at ubid for 209 or you can bid on it. they ususally go for around $150 if i remember right. it does DTS, Dolby Digital, and Pro-Logic II. 55w/ch x 5 so its a pretty decent deal. best bet for your buck right now.
 
I'd recommend a used or refurbished Onkyo 595 or Outlaw 1050 and Home Theater Direct Level 1 speakers

~$350 for the receiver and $150 for the speakers.
 
I've always been a big fan of Cambridge Soundworks speakers. No, they aren't "audiophile quality", but you can get a really nice set for reasonable money. $300 will get you their MoveWorks 408 set, usually $350, now $300. $400 will get you a New Ensemble II Home Theater Speaker System , usually $500. IMHO, the New Ensemble speakers are a very nice set. I've got the original Ensembles and really like them.

Nowadays, most of the home theater "sets" are designed to have four mid-upper range speakers, a center speaker and a subwoofer. You can still get "normal" full-range speakers, but the sub adds an incredible amount of depth, and it works out nicely to not have full ranges all across the board. I'm sure a lot of others will differ with me on this, too, but for the money, these this set can't be beat.

Spend at least $200 on a receiver - A Pioneer 509S/510 would be a good choice in this range, if you can find one - My Costco had some 509S' in stock for $199. It's not a Denon, but it's got plenty of power and gets reviewed as a good quality box.

Also, what kind of receiver you get depends a lot on what you do. Do you watch a lot of VCR tapes? If so, you might consider paying a bit more for one with Dolby ProLogic II, which greatly enhances the ProLogic encoding on your typical videocassette. If you're mostly into DVD's, then you really don't need it.

Best bet - Get your dad into a good audio shop (Not someplace like Best Buy, some place like Tweeter) and have him listen - Make him understand what a sub gets him. If you happen to be in a town with a Cambridge Soundworks store, go in and listen to their stuff - You won't be dissapointed!

- G

- G
 
here is the list that i sent to my dad....

Speakers: JBL NSP1 $230 from amazon

Receiver: Technics SA-DX950 or Panasonic HE9S both around $250 from Bestbuy

DVD Player: Panasonic RP56 Progessive Scan DVD player or Toshiba SD-4700 Progressive Scan DVD Player both are about $230 from bestbuy

Sub: AudioSource SW FIFTEEN $130 from costco

or he should just go get a set of Pioneer HTS-910DV DVD Home Theater System for about $700 from etronics.com

anyone want to make some suggestions as to what i should change? 🙂

thanks

 
Yeah i have some suggestions.

Speakers: Look, he's spending $360 on the speakers and subwoofer already. Why not get the Energy Take 5 ($465) system instead? It only costs 100 bucks more. And we're talking night and day difference here. Trust me, go out and hear this system for yourself - you will find nothing like it in that price range.

Receiver: Seriously, stay away from anything that doesn't have Denon, Yamaha, Harman-Kardon, or Onkyo written on it. There are other good receiver manufacturers out there, but these are the best in your price range. With that said, how about the Denon 1602 ($255)? Where else are you going to get a DTS/Dolby Pro Logic II receiver for such a price?

DVD: Why on earth would you want him to spend so much money on a DVD player? I would have to suggest the Toshiba SD1700 ($133). An excellent product for an even better price. The SD4700 is great, but it's filled with a bunch of features that he won't use, even if he buys a new TV. This one already has component outputs - that's as future-proof as you're going to get with a DVD player.

I think you should send him another email, and recommend this stuff to him instead. Trust me, this is pretty much the best he can get for his budget. With shipping, this will cost about $200 more than the Pioneer system, so we're talking about $900 here. But at this price level, the 25% price increase makes all the difference - the performance increase is a 3-digit number. Hell, comparing that Pioneer system to this is like comparing a Ford Taurus to a Porsche 911.
 
The descenting view here:
Pioneer makes half those other brands of Recievers.
They are the OEM for either Marantz and Onkyo or Denon and Onkyo..
 
diabolic, I've read the panasonic rp56 has very good chips in it, so it *should* give better quality.

As for the receiever, why not compromise between the lower end technics/panasonic and grab a pioneer. I can honestly say I'm happy with mine 🙂


That Take 5 system looks decent...

 
As far as I am concerned, folks should get a Pioneer with the features they want.
Nothing else sounds any better, or really any different, unless you get a Lexicon for a few thousand.
 
glen im gonna disagree with you. its very easy to hear the difference between a pioneer and say a denon, marantz, onkyo or outlaw.

soccerbud. d1abolic has pretty good suggestions.

however, id still recommend the PSB Alphas over the energy take 5, but the take 5 is a good system.

the denon 1602 is a great choice esp at that price point, but ill stick by my onkyo 494 recommendation as a second option.

for dvd go with the panasonic rv-31k, its nicer than the toshiba and an awesome unit. ive got the model before it (dvr-30) and its been wonderful. the 31 plays cdrs though where the 30 doesnt (but itll play cd-rws go figure).

go with quality stuff and you will notice a huge difference over kenwood, pioneer, and sony.
 
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