Hi Jennie. Welecome to HTF!
In general, we suggest avoiding any Home Theater in a Box unless all the parts are separate so you can upgrade/replace pieces without needing to toss the entire system.
For example: the Kenwood HTB-509 gives you
- Stand alone receiver
- Stand alone self-powered sub
- 5 tone-matched speakers
- Stand alone DVD player
All this for about $600. The beauty of this system is you can slowly upgrade parts as desire/money become available.
Other Issue: how many other devices do you have?
A lot of people have a VCR, CATV box, STB (for HD TV), a game system (XBox, PS2), Sat receiver, Tivo, ....
Most of the HTIB's dont have nearly enough inputs to allow you to run audio (or video) through the units. So they become quickly obsolete.
Only if you have limited space issues should you consider one of the smaller, integrated HTIB's. This would be for a dorm, small apartment, or a bedroom system. Other than that, look for a system with all the parts separate.
Hope this helps.
, so I'm not ready to build a home theater piece-by-piece yet. I believe that day won't come for another couple of years, but I'd still like something that beats the pathetic sounds of my TV speakers for the time being...
