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I gots $500-600 to spend on a Home theater setup

That's a low budget. You need a good subwoofer, which is probably the most important piece in a HT setup. You can find plenty of inexpensive and good choices for other speakers and receiver. I don't know what's a good sub for less than $300 however. check out audioreview.com
 
For other speakers (front, center, and surround), home theater in box may be OK. But I would buy the subwoofer seperately.
 
I pretty much did my HT for that much.

$200 Denon 5:1 amp from 6ave.com
$100 Sony DVD player
$140 Sony front L/R speakers (these are also my music speakers so they're floorstanding)
$70 Wharfedale center channel
$60 In-wall rear surrounds from Ratshack
$60 KLH 150-watt sub on double-secret closeout at Costco

It won't shake your eyes loose, but it's not bad for my (small) living room.
 
Originally posted by: Fausto
I pretty much did my HT for that much.

$200 Denon 5:1 amp from 6ave.com
$100 Sony DVD player
$140 Sony front L/R speakers (these are also my music speakers so they're floorstanding)
$70 Wharfedale center channel
$60 In-wall rear surrounds from Ratshack
$60 KLH 150-watt sub on double-secret closeout at Costco

It won't shake your eyes loose, but it's not bad for my (small) living room.
Click to expand...

Your center channel and mains should be matched.

$600 is really too low to do a decent HT setup IMHO.
 
Originally posted by: Fausto
I pretty much did my HT for that much.

$200 Denon 5:1 amp from 6ave.com
$100 Sony DVD player
$140 Sony front L/R speakers (these are also my music speakers so they're floorstanding)
$70 Wharfedale center channel
$60 In-wall rear surrounds from Ratshack
$60 KLH 150-watt sub on double-secret closeout at Costco

It won't shake your eyes loose, but it's not bad for my (small) living room.
Click to expand...

Good subwoofer is not about high output/volume, but accurate, responsive, tight bass which is a lot harder to reproduce than mid- and high-range sound.
 
well, i have the following:

Panasonic XR-25 Amp ($135 from sears on closeout)
Athena AS-F2 mains ($360 from audioadvisor)
Jensen CB-315's for surrounds (free from a friend, and they're actually supposed to be main speakers, but they sound GREAT as surrounds)
no center channel (yet)
Dayton 10" 'Tiny Mighty' Sub ($110 from partsexpress)
100' spool of 14 gauge (they didn't have 12) wire from lowes ($25)
various cabling, most of it was lying around ($25)

so, for a total of about $650, i have a very nice little system. does it compete with a $4000 setup? no. does it compete with a $500 HTIB setup? no - it blows it out of the water.

if i were you, i'd be looking for a good deal on a HTIB (home theater in box) setup. find something with a decent amp, then upgrade the speakers as you have time and money.

alternately, you could build the system piece by piece, like i did. first i bought the sub (good deal came along and i grabbed it), next the amp (and used the Jensens as mains), then got the new mains....next will be a center channel, then a projector, then new surrounds (probably another pair of AS-F2's).

for the money i paid, i'm VERY happy with this system. it does everything i want it to very well, and was fairly cheap (for what i got) to boot.

i hope this gives you a few ideas, and i'd be happy to help you out if i can.

you might want to check out the AVS Forums (avsforum.com) or the Home Theater Forums (hometheaterforums.com). those guys know a helluva lot more than i do...

good luck.
 
HTIB seems to be your only solution. Too small of a budget to fit in individual and good components. For a decent PAIR of speakers, I'd expect to pay at least $500.
 
gregshin, if you want some highly rated yet budget speakers check out the Fluance line. There are tons of reviews on the web for these. I plan on getting the SX-HTB 5 myself. They are $259.99 plus shipping.

Look at the difference in the set as compared to most HT speaker in a box. They don't skimp on anything.
 
Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Originally posted by: Fausto
I pretty much did my HT for that much.

$200 Denon 5:1 amp from 6ave.com
$100 Sony DVD player
$140 Sony front L/R speakers (these are also my music speakers so they're floorstanding)
$70 Wharfedale center channel
$60 In-wall rear surrounds from Ratshack
$60 KLH 150-watt sub on double-secret closeout at Costco

It won't shake your eyes loose, but it's not bad for my (small) living room.
Click to expand...

Your center channel and mains should be matched.

$600 is really too low to do a decent HT setup IMHO.
Click to expand...
I totally agree, but this is what I could cobble together for a minimal amount of $. It's just not a big priority for me. I'd tell you less than $1000 on a road bike isn't really worth it either and you'd look at me like I was nuts. 😛

 
Originally posted by: lancestorm
HTIB seems to be your only solution. Too small of a budget to fit in individual and good components. For a decent PAIR of speakers, I'd expect to pay at least $500.
Click to expand...

Not bookshelf speakers. You don't need $500 to get a great pair of bookshelf speakers. There are many choices here.
 
Originally posted by: welst10
Originally posted by: lancestorm
HTIB seems to be your only solution. Too small of a budget to fit in individual and good components. For a decent PAIR of speakers, I'd expect to pay at least $500.
Click to expand...

Not bookshelf speakers. You don't need $500 to get a great pair of bookshelf speakers. There are many choices here.
Click to expand...

To each his own.

And the price I was referring to floorstanding.
 
This (make sure to register at clubonkyo so you get points for future purchases) + a ~$75 dvd player + cables will probably keep you around the $500 mark.

ViperGTS beat me to it. Trust me, it's a great setup for a beginner...I love mine. It's actually way overkill for the apartment I'm in.
 
Originally posted by: lancestorm
Originally posted by: welst10
Originally posted by: lancestorm
HTIB seems to be your only solution. Too small of a budget to fit in individual and good components. For a decent PAIR of speakers, I'd expect to pay at least $500.
Click to expand...

Not bookshelf speakers. You don't need $500 to get a great pair of bookshelf speakers. There are many choices here.
Click to expand...

To each his own.

And the price I was referring to floorstanding.
Click to expand...

I know you were referring to floor standing ones. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: welst10
Originally posted by: lancestorm
Originally posted by: welst10
Originally posted by: lancestorm
HTIB seems to be your only solution. Too small of a budget to fit in individual and good components. For a decent PAIR of speakers, I'd expect to pay at least $500.
Click to expand...

Not bookshelf speakers. You don't need $500 to get a great pair of bookshelf speakers. There are many choices here.
Click to expand...

To each his own.

And the price I was referring to floorstanding.
Click to expand...

I know you were referring to floor standing ones. 🙂
Click to expand...

Let's not get off topic here. But to get my point across, yes I don't think you can find a great set of floorstanders for under $500/pair. This is MY EARS talking, so to each his own. Let's try to help him find what he needs though for HIS budget.
 
Originally posted by: minendo
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
Onkyo HTIB + a DVD player.

Really your only option with that budget.

Viper GTS
Click to expand...

And it is a reasonable option. The onkyo HTIB is a nice setup.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm...m/ccd/productDetail.do
Click to expand...

Indeed it's a reasonable option. On a smaller budget the Kenwood HTB-505 is good as well. Both are far more than 99% of the population will ever need, want, or use.

Add in a spool of decent gauge speaker wire & he'd still be under budget.

Viper GTS
 
I would add Klipsch Quintets to the system as well...I thought they were on sale at Best Buy...but I don't know if that setup even comes with a receiver/player.
 
Originally posted by: lancestorm
Originally posted by: welst10
Originally posted by: lancestorm
Originally posted by: welst10
Originally posted by: lancestorm
HTIB seems to be your only solution. Too small of a budget to fit in individual and good components. For a decent PAIR of speakers, I'd expect to pay at least $500.
Click to expand...

Not bookshelf speakers. You don't need $500 to get a great pair of bookshelf speakers. There are many choices here.
Click to expand...

To each his own.

And the price I was referring to floorstanding.
Click to expand...

I know you were referring to floor standing ones. 🙂
Click to expand...

Let's not get off topic here. But to get my point across, yes I don't think you can find a great set of floorstanders for under $500/pair. This is MY EARS talking, so to each his own. Let's try to help him find what he needs though for HIS budget.
Click to expand...

I totally agree you can't get a good pair of floor standing for less than $500. I don't dispute that. I was saying that for bookshelf speakers it's a different story.
 
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