What sort of 5.1 setup would you build for ~$500?

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
I currently own a 4.0 system using a sony str-de597, some infinity sl-20 fronts and infinity qps-1w rears.

The wife and I are moving in to our new house, which has a loft area we're going to dedicate as a gaming room. My plan is to take my existing system up for the loft, so we'll need something new for our living room where we watch movies (~14'x20' on a rough guess from memory).

I've never been particularly picky about sound quality. But while I'm no audiophile, I can recognize decent quality sound when I hear it. But, I'm currently limited in my budget (especially right now). Another quirk is that we have 5.1 speaker pre-wiring in our ceiling, so whatever speakers I get needs to be ceiling mountable.

I've looked at these various systems/setups

Yamaha YHT-390bl ... ~$350, no threaded or keyholes in center and front speakers :/ ...would have to drill or use gorilla glue for mounts. Sounds decent, if a little "boxy" from the low budget speakers.

Onkyo HT-SR800 ... ~$350, refurbished and don't know about speaker quality or mounts because no local stores carry this product.

Or I could maybe stretch my budget a bit (less preferrable) and get something like Polk RM6880 (pretty sure my local CC has them, otherwise Polk RM6750) + Sony STR-DG520... ~600 + tax

Or Yamaha ns-sp1600 + Yamaha RX-V463BL... ~$400+

Any other suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated....obviously one common element (except for the Yamaha HTiB listed) is the autosetup/calibration from the receivers. Definitely an attractive feature to me since I know next to nothing about speaker calibration.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,450
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That Sony receiver is garbage. A full 1% THD at the rated power? That's lame. Look at the Onkyo TX-SR304 instead.
 

vi edit

Elite Member
Super Moderator
Oct 28, 1999
62,484
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n/m Just saw the ceiling req. That kills a lot of ideas. Are you open to scrapping it for the fronts and going with a conventional tower speaker?
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
Originally posted by: vi edit
n/m Just saw the ceiling req. That kills a lot of ideas. Are you open to scrapping it for the fronts and going with a conventional tower speaker?

Unfortunately the WAF limit is reached in such a case. ;)
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
Well, I went with the Polk RM6880 speakers, and I'll just use my current receiver for a while.
 

alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
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Usually I say upgrade the speakers first, but not only was that Sony you were looking at garbage, your current one is even worse. I know--I (briefly) owned it, before returning it Best Buy. The THD is beyond horrible I could hear the tweeter hissing from about 15 feet away with no input source and -50db volume.

The Pansonic SA-XR55 was the exact same price and was better than the 597 in everything minus a few inputs. The amp, pre-amp and dac were night and day different.
 

Gooberlx2

Lifer
May 4, 2001
15,381
6
91
Originally posted by: Astrallite
Usually I say upgrade the speakers first, but not only was that Sony you were looking at garbage, your current one is even worse. I know--I (briefly) owned it, before returning it Best Buy. The THD is beyond horrible I could hear the tweeter hissing from about 15 feet away with no input source and -50db volume.

The Pansonic SA-XR55 was the exact same price and was better than the 597 in everything minus a few inputs. The amp, pre-amp and dac were night and day different.

Yeah, I didn't know anything about receivers when I bought it (still don't know much), but my old refurbished H/K died on me and I had to buy something I could afford at the time, and that would fit on top of our rear projection HDTV.

We got rid of that TV a few years ago and I can afford a little bit more now. So spending an extra $100 on something like a Yamaha RX-V463 might be a good investment. Actually I know I can get a RX-V363 for $200 locally, but it doesn't have the auto-calibration.