[nighthawk15]

Well first I would like to introduce myself. My name is William, I am no stranger to electronics but honestly know nearly nothing about home theater audio equipment and would like to learn more because my parents are looking to get a new system! It is to be used with a 47" LCD TV in a fairly average but good size living room. If you need exact dimensions I can get them for you. The parameters for the system itself are:

• $500 budget. Can be a bit more though if it will make a big difference.
• The subwoofer needs to be strong enough to provide enough bass to give the sound some kick so it doesn't seem flat, but at the same time my mom doesn't want it booming and rattling outside of the house. I imagine that means a very small sub could do the job, but as said above I have little knowledge of the specifics.
• very similar deal with the speakers as the sub. Good sound with nice highs and lows, but they don't really need to be able to blow the roof off. Just strong enough to get some nice volume.
• I am guessing an amp/receiver will be needed as well, so whatever you guys think is a good choice.

Definitely a bit more tame than most here would probably be after, and honestly I would probably want to get something with a bit more balls as well (I love it when something blows up and the room shakes ), but that's the parameters I was able to gather with the conversation I had with my mom. To quote her "I don't care if I feel like I'm going through the tunnel with the train". I would also like to know your opinions on preconfigured/canned systems and if there are any you would recommend, or if a custom setup is the best way to go? Thank you very much in advance for any help!

P.S. I am not so sure I put this in the write forum, but everywhere else appears to be specific to one type of audio or video component. If it this in the wrong forum I apologize.

[Robert_J]

This would fit better in the Basics or Speakers section. This is more for complete theater or media room projects and DIY speakers and subs.

A $500 budget will get you a good to great home theater in a box (HTiB). I just checked out the Onkyo SR-800 system. It looks feature packed and gets good reviews at Amazon. You can keep upping your budget for better receiver features, better speakers, better sub but you have to know where your limit is. Pick a hard budget and stick to it.

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The subwoofer needs to be strong enough to provide enough bass to give the sound some kick so it doesn't seem flat, but at the same time my mom doesn't want it booming and rattling outside of the house. I imagine that means a very small sub could do the job, but as said above I have little knowledge of the specifics.

"Punch" and "kick" are normally associated with bass in the 50hz region. A good set of tower speakers can do that. You want a sub that is flat and can play as low as your budget allows. Booming and rattling outside the house is dependent on how loud you listen to stuff and the construction of the house. I can barely hear my subs outside the house and I run dual 15's with a little over 2,000w pushing them. And a little sub can cost you well over $3,000. The larger the sub, the more efficient and lower it will play.

Quote:

very similar deal with the speakers as the sub. Good sound with nice highs and lows, but they don't really need to be able to blow the roof off. Just strong enough to get some nice volume.

"Nice volume" is again very subjective. Audition as many systems as possible. Even the ones at the big box stores. Find what type of sound you like. Speakers are very personal because everyone hears slightly different.

Quote:

I am guessing an amp/receiver will be needed as well, so whatever you guys think is a good choice.

Receivers cost between $99 and $9,999 (and higher). A HTiB like the one mentioned above has a lot of features for the price. What are your sources for the TV/Receiver? DVD? Blue-Ray, Cable, Satellite, high def? Do you want your receiver to do the switching? And the biggest, do you want a universal remote? Addional sources and the different inputs of a receiver can become extremely complicated for parents. I use a Harmony 880 to simplify my extremely complicated sytem. My mother-in-law can pick up the remote and work everything perfectly without knowing what equipment needs to be on which setting.

I recommend that you take the time to read some in each forum here. You may want to go with more expensive equipment and buy a piece at a time. Of you may want to save some money via the DIY route. There are hundreds of choices and no one can recommend something that is perfect for you. Only you can determine that.

-Robert

[nighthawk15]

Thanks for the great reply! I understand a lot of the stuff listed is subjective, but I'm basically just trying to get a good idea of what to even look at and if a nice system can be done in that price range. It sounds like an HTiB might be a good way to go for this application. I remember seeing similar systems to the one you showed above in costco and thinking they must not have too good of sound because the speakers were so small and I thought it would just sound like having the tv hooked up to a couple of small boom boxes. I'm guessing that's a bit of an outdated concept?

As far as I can tell the house appears to be pretty solidly built. The only thing that might cause a lot of bass to leak outside is that there are three pretty big windows in the living room.

Now for the video sources, how did I forget those? there are only two sources, both HD. One is a satellite receiver, and the other is a DVD player, which I imagine will probably be replaced by a blue-ray at some point but probably not until DVD is really on its way out. Of course if we were to go with a canned home theater with a dvd player built into it the dvd player would not be an issue.

The TV is a 1080P Vizio with both HDMI as well as component inputs. So, are there any particular recommended brands I should try to stick to or is pretty much any reputable brand good?

To the mods: Feel free to move this to a more fitting forum.