Help me help a friend...

A friend of mine is starting from scratch on a 5.1 system. He has a budget of around $1500 for everything (Center/2 Fronts/2 Rears/Sub/Receiver). Obviously he wants to avoid going the HTiB route. The only two components he's hooking up are a PS3 (used mainly as a Blu-Ray player) and his Cable box. He'd like to do both via HDMI allowing the receiver to do the switching.

So I've been out of the game a little while and was just wondering if anyone had some recommendations. I was thinking of an Harmon Kardon AVR 146 for the receiver, since I love my 235 possible paired with the SV SBS-01 5.1 package. I'm not sure if he cares about large mains or not so lets assume either size is on the table. Any thoughts you guys had would be a big help. Thanks.

Re: Help me help a friend...

For the receiver, the Onkyo 605 (I guess the 606 is out now) has been extremely popular in this price range. It does seem to be a great receiver and processes HD audio formats. The SVS speaker system is also excellent, though I would personally try to step up to the CSi25-31 sub rather than the 10-NSB. The extra $100 or so is well spent and the smaller footprint is nice as well.

In this price range, he should most definitely stick with bookshelf speakers. I'm a big fan of full size speakers, even with a sub, but they are extremely expensive to get the same or better quality as good bookshelfs.

Re: Help me help a friend...

Cool, I'll check out the Onkyo and recommend the SV package with upgraded sub. Of course now I'll be jealous because I want to upgrade my gear but can't until I close on a house! Thanks.

EDIT: The upgraded sub and the Onkyo 606 would definitely put us over his budget (I'm seeing if he can stretch it a little) so does anyone have a cheaper receiver they would recommend?

Re: Help me help a friend...

Can he afford this? Yamaha RX-V861BL 7.1 Channel XM Ready Home Theater Receiver (RX V861BL) at Vanns.com | Features

It's HDMI v1.2 so you've got no problem there. It can't internally decode the newest high-def audio formats but there's no need, the PS3 can't send any signals through bitstream it only internally decodes the formats then sends them to the receiver via PCM. So no loss there.

If he doesn't mind a sub that's covered in bedliner the Elemental Design subs are the best bang for the buck, although the PB10-NSD is no slouch and if he has to "settle" for that he'll still be blown away by the system.

Re: Help me help a friend...

That's a great price for the RX-V861...and free shipping too.