Well I'm back
What do your parents use to play their tapes now? You might be able to hook that up if it has a line-out or a headphone jack on it.
For speaker wire, check out
this page for a little reference on what gauge of wire would be good for the kind of lengths you're be running.
Cablesforless has affordable speaker wire (other places too).
I guess what happens next depends on how much time and effort you and your parents want to spend on this.
Ideally you'd do some preliminary research to find out what kind of system you would be interested in and what's available.
Then you'd demo some stuff to see what you like.
This demo-ing is easy for stuff that you can get locally, but for internet direct stuff you can also get a demo going from either finding a current owner in your area or buying a set from the company and returning it within their in-home demo period for a refund.
(Ideally you would demo in your actual final listening area and you'd have all the options there to switch between to hear the differences)
After you find out what sounds best to you, finding a good deal on the stuff...
Depending on how big a purchase this is and how interested you guys are in it, that's probably not going to happen though.
Sounds like you just want me to tell you what to buy
I'd be happy to make some recommendations, but it would still be a good idea to actually go out and hear some stuff before you make a final decision.
A few questions:
How big of a room is this going in? (LxWxH)
Would you be able to set up something like
the dolby recommended placement in the room?
What % of the usage of this system is going to be stereo sources (like music/standard tv) vs sources that are 5.1?
Do you think you guys would want a fairly substantial sub, or would a more budgety one be better for you? (For movies do you watch a lot of action explosion type movies? Do you want to listen at loud volumes and shake your windows from time to time?)
I guess the biggest decision to make here is 2.1 vs 5.1 for the system.
For $1000 you can get a nice 2.1 system going that could be upgraded to 5.1 eventually if you want to.
For $1000 there are going to be some compromises to get a 5.1 system going
(obviously you're making compromises at any budget, but I mean fairly significant ones)
For music, stereo is what's best for the vast majority of what's out there.
I think personally for a $1000 music system I'd get something along the lines of
A refurb HK 3380 from the seller harmanaudio (I've ordered from them before... they put a new full warranty on items)
(Or an HK 3480 for a little more)
They're supposed to pair well with Ascend Acoustics.
Ascend 170s have gotten amazing reviews. They need a nice sub to compliment them, but that's covered by an HSU STF-2 or an SVS PB10.
Both are great for music... but it seemed to me in my research that the PB10 had the edge for HT usage with its lower frequency extension.
Ascend 170s are a highly regarded bookshelf speaker in this range
The SVS PB10 and HSU STF-2 are great subs in the range (I ended up with a PB10)
An HK stereo receiver will have plenty of power and is supposed to match well with the Ascends to make them sound very nice.
Add in some speaker wire and an RCA cable to connect the sub and you have yourself a nice 2.1 system.
You should be able to get a nice flat frequency response from those that would sound good to most listeners.
For a 5.1 system it would be nice to maintain that same quality for the whole system.
Matching the front three speakers is a good idea for HT usage. The center channel is the most used speaker for HT, producing something like 70% of the sound for a typical movie.
So for music you want to concentrate on the FR and FL... for movies you want to have the front three but especially the center to be of high quality.
For both applications you'd want to have a nice sub too. Most of my suggestions in here are for bookshelf sized speakers that need a sub to compliment them for the low end.
The surrond speakers are the place to skimp. You could even not have any initially and see what you think of it. Or get some really cheap speakers that don't match for surround duty (like polk R15s for $40 a pair).
Keeping with trusty Ascend for a surround system, maybe
refurb HK AVR230 again from harmanaudio
3.0 Ascend 170s $510 shipped
SVS PB10 about $450
That's closer to $1200 without surround speakers yet.
Add in speaker wire, a sub cable, and a couple R15s and you're at about $1250.
Like darkswordsman17 said, $1500 is more doable for a quality 5.1 set.
With $1500 you could get the center up to a 340 or get matching HTM-200s for surrounds.
To keep it at $1000
For the receiver a decent one is going to be $200 or more shipped.
A refurb HK / Onkyo / etc.
or a new Pioneer like I linked to above are about as cheap as you're going to get.
That leaves you $800 for 5.1 shipped.
Especially if there isn't going to be a lot of action movie sort of stuff or music with a lot of bass in it, go with a cheaper sub.
The Dayton 12" for $120 shipped is a great deal.
Between the $450-ish subs and the Dayton, a JBL e250 is a good bet.
If you went with a Dayton, you'd have about $680 left for speakers (taking out some money for speaker wire and a sub cable you're at about $600).
Paradigm is a brand you could look at in this range.
4 atoms and a cc-170 would come to about $600... maybe even including tax with a package discount.
You're almost back up to Ascends again 170s for the front 3 and a random pair of speakers for the surrounds would put you on budget.
Along with Paradigm, JBL northridge series is another brand you could demo.
For $800 refurb you could do
ec35 center ($135)
e20s for surrounds ($80)
Leaving about $550 for fronts and a sub...
Could do another pair of E20s or E30s and get and SVS sub or
A pair of floorstanding JBLs (e60/e80/e90) and a
e250 sub ($215)
So anyway I've written you a novel here since it helps me relax looking up this sort of stuff
Maybe with the answers to some of the questions I asked we can come up with a better idea of what would be best for you guys since there are so many options out there.
Before you get set on a $1000 budget you might even want to check out some $500 options. If you are all used to tv speakers, something like an Onkyo HTIB might be all you'll want.
It's more expensive in the long run to get a $450 HTIB and then upgrade it later on than doing it right the first time, but a HTIB is all some people need.
If you did do something like that and decided to upgrade later it wouldn't be the end of the world either. Your Onkyo receiver would be a nice one so you could stick with that and then just upgrade the front three speakers and move the old front speakers to surrounds and the old surrounds to rears.
Just some stuff to think about before you set a budget in stone.
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