Advice on Budget Home Theater System <$800 (1 Viewer)

[kesai77]

This will be my first home theater system. I am pretty technical but I need personal advice based on your experience. I believe I have a good handle on the differences between a seperates system and an in-box system. After reading many reviews I was almost settled on a Samsung HT-C6500 in box system because it seemed to be a great value, but some user reviews were poor even though the "experts" were giving it good ratings. It had to do with online netflix streaming and such.


I don't need a blu-ray player integrated to the receiver and I don't mind working with a separates system but I need advice on the components for it. Overall my expectations are to meet or exceed the Bose displays at a Best Buy which I believe will be easy to do based on my price range. I do not want to go at all with Bose also based my research. If my budget is less than $800 for the receiver and speakers, what are good options? I have found some decent Onkyo/Denon in box options but I'm looking for good advice for some separates. I can add the blu-ray later. I'm looking for a 5.1 system and if the side/rear speakers are wireless that is a bonus. For functionality, I will be running my Xbox 360, DVD player, TV, streaming video, and music (ipod).


Overall, I am a person who is really big on value for my dollar.


Any help you can provide is greatly appreciated.


Thanks,

Shawn

 

[CB750]

Whatever you do you were wise to stay away from Bose cube products and while Samsung makes some good electronics they are not known to produce the best HTib.


With an $800 budget you are at the point where you can go for an upper level HTib. Onkyo and Denon are frequently mentioned. Or you can put together a system from separates. A good split of your budget could be around $250-300 for a receiver and $500-550 for a 5.1 speaker system. This would give you the advantage to pick a speaker system that might better suit your ears and listening tastes than those which come with HTib package. That decision should be based on your evaluation of listening to various systems and pick the one that sounds best to you.

Keep in mind that when looking for low end receivers that it has all of the necessary equipment connections and other features you might need.

 

[kesai77]

Do you have any recommendations for recievers and speakers in this price range? Also, what locations would be able to provide accurate displays so I can actually test them out? Most places I've visited show the separates along a wall and it really does a horrible job of putting together a nice surround sound system.


Thanks for your response.