First Home Theatre Set Up- $700 to spend

I finally have some money to invest into a home theatre system and I'm looking for some suggestions. I've been doing some research and it seems like the polk audio r50's are an amazing deal, so I was contemplating getting 4 of those as both the fronts and the rears... I'm not sure however because I am also a pretty big music listeners so might want to invest more in the fronts than the rears (is this smart thinking or not?). After that, I've read its good to keep the same brands to maintain continuity so I was looking at some center and subwoofers made by polk as well. The CS1 and PSW110 seem to be great bang for the buck and stay well within the budget. The prices I have found put the r50's are $60 each from Fry's (plus another 15 per shipping), around $100 for the cs1, and around $100 for the psw110. That brings me to around 500.... I'm hoping that the rest would be able to get me a decent receiver that could power it all. If not though, please let me know and suggest a different approach. I am very new to all of this and am not sure the best set up. I am familiar with audio in general, more specifically the car audio industry- but this is my first venture into home theatre. Thanks for all of your help

Re: First Home Theatre Set Up- $700 to spend

Using speakers from the same line is called "timbre matching". That means they will all sound the same as the sound moves around the room. Having all 5 the same is great but having the front three the same is still very good. The sub doesn't matter as it covers a different frequency range. Polk subs are not usually recommended here. But the ones that are usually recommended will take your entire budget. I haven't followed the budget subs but someone should be around soon that can help out.

-Robert

Re: First Home Theatre Set Up- $700 to spend

Hey, Matt.

Good luck as you dip your toes into this extremely fun hobby!

I have an extremely modest HT which is comprised of budget Polk speakers. I have two R30s for fronts, two R15s as rears a Polk CSi25 Center and a Sony SA-WM40.

You're right. it's hard to beat Fry's (or outpost.com's) prices on the budget Polks. That's where I got mine. There's a thread that's been running awhile in "Bargains & Deals" on this issue. HERE'S the most recent post in which I linked to some of the prices a few months ago.

FWIW, I'm pleased with my current set-up but hope...someday (maybe when youngest son is through college) to upgrade. But for now these babies do all I require of them. I'm driving them with another budget piece: a Sony STR-DE445.

Again, FWIW, I, too, was advised to stay away from the Polk subs.

if you've got any questions, fire away!

EDIT** Looks like the R150s (the successor to the R15) are now $179 a pair!

i think these sales are cyclical in nature for Frys.

Re: First Home Theatre Set Up- $700 to spend

Do you have $300 more bucks? This is an excellent budget HT system.

SVSound - Complete Systems

Re: First Home Theatre Set Up- $700 to spend

Ugh. No offense but this is a big pet peeve of mine as far as this area of the forum is concerned. Guy says he has $700, not $700 + 40%!

--
H

Re: First Home Theatre Set Up- $700 to spend

It may be "Your Pet Peeve" but IMO the OP gets 100% better sound quality, and performance over the Polk's for 40% more.

Re: First Home Theatre Set Up- $700 to spend

I agree with Mazer........
If the OP wants to hold off until he can save the extra $300, he'll be extremely happy he did! All the speakers will be timbre matched, and most everyone knows that SVS makes one of the best subs on the planet.