home theatre in a box

No.
If you're going to base any kind of quality at all on price, you're looking at a bare minimum of $400. And even that isn't good quality. It's ok quality, just to get by half way decent. The cheapest price for decent quality to me, considering it's an HTIB, would be this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-HT-S6200-7-1-Channel-Entertainment-Receiver/dp/B002C73WS6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1263075285&sr=1-1

Quote:

Really?  Because I'm a trust-fund baby who lives in the fully paid-up family mansion and gets his car insurance free because we own the insurance company.  I have staff to pay my other expenses.  Who let you in here? 

I'm a state government employee who has a mortgage to pay, plus car and homeowners insurance, and  condo association fee, cable, electric, phone, etc.  But I do have a certain amount of disposable income, and I can choose how to spend that.  You have a pool table and a games room. A lot of people would consider that a rich person's luxury.

In a world of $500 smart phones $300 game systems and $200 sneakers, it is hard judge what is "expensive".  Depends on the person.  I would not spend $500 on a phone (or $75 a month on a data plan) because I use my phone to make phone calls and I prefer to use a computer to surf the web.  But I have friends  who love their iPhones.  We have different priorities.  They actually watch TV shows and movies on those crappy little screens, which I wouldn't do in a million years unless I was following a live news stories, and noner of them has what I would consider a decent sound system at home.

You asked if the stuff you were looking at would provide quality sound, and Ed told you the sad truth and gave you the lowest-price alternative that would get you quality.  Since you only gave the prices for what you had looked at, and didn't indicate that this represented your budget, Ed had no way of knowing if his suggestions were realistic for you or not.  Why bite his head off with this "I'm not rich" stuff? 

You came to a site called "The Home Theater Forum".  That should have been an indication that the people here consider the quality of the sound and image that they get from their system is a priority.  This is where we choose to spend our disposable income, so yeah, we're apt to suggest something more expensive than speakers made of fiberboard, just the folks at "Smartphone World" would probably suggest more expensive phones than my four-year-old Moto Razr.   

If your budget is $200 or less, then realistically you're not going to get a quality system.  $200 will buy you a decent entry-level receiver, an OK pair of front speakers, a pretty good powered sub or a very good upconverting DVD player.  (In fact, it will get you a very nice Blu-Ray player.) 

Your choices are some pretty cheesy new HTiBs like the ones you've looked at, or something from the used market.  Even there you may have to spend more than $200 for a used Onkyo or Denon HTiB,   Since none of the systems that I've seen in your price range include a powered sub, you're not going to get that real bass "punch" from any of them.  If you'e looking for "more volume and clarity than the TV speakers" either of the systems you're looking at will do that.  If you're looking for "quality sound" then you pick a system and start saving for it.  Because you can have cheap or you can have good, but you can't have both. 

Regards,

Joe

I would have to agree. The Onkyo system is a basic some what quality set up. And trust me when I say we all know what a small budget is. It has taken me 5 years just to get what I have and that aint much. I have a wife, kids, a home, 2 cars, ... shall I go on...

Considering that you could spend $30,000 or more just on speakers, $15,000 on amp and processor, or $5,000 or more on a receiver, then $2,000 or more on a subwoofer, and about $1000 or more on a blu ray player, $600 is pocket change!

We all have bills to pay, as the others said. You're not unique. As mentioned, you never said what your budget was, so I told you what the cheapest system was that would give you decent quality for the money. You can go to Wal Mart and get a Durabrand system for $79.95, and even though it sorta works, you wouldn't have anything. The systems you mentioned are not going to give you crisp sound and nice bass. Period. You asked...........we told you. Sorry it wasn't what you wanted to hear. This stuff is like any other hobby. Decent stuff costs money. Even in stamp collecting, the good stamps costs thousands of dollars. Coin collecting can be the same way. Radio controlled cars or planes......... a good one will cost at least $1000.

I also love to bass fish. I have thousands wrapped up in that. You figure the bass boat ($30,000 - $50,000), a truck to pull it ($30,000 or more), rods and reels which costs hundreds each, a tackle box full of lures, can easily cost $500 - $600. Then figure the cost of the gas and oil, in the truck and boat, to go fishing. As you've probably guessed, I don't get to fish much anymore. Especially since gas prices have gotten so high, and I've been out of work over 4 years.

I'm sure there's probably some members here, out of the thousands, that are rich. They are the one's who's home theater looks like the theater downtown, only better. Most of us are in the same boat as you. You've gone without this long, go a little longer, and start saving some money each payday. It won't take too long to get that $600 system. Keep an eye on Amazon.com (where I linked to). They may have it cheaper than that soon. They run good sales occasionally.