Cheap Receiver/Speakers (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Sch]

I haven't seen a good low-end thread in a while. I'm a college student and want a setup for my room. I'm willing to spend up to $500 on my entire setup. For now, I'll probably want a pair of bookshelf speakers, a receiver and (depending on the speakers) a sub. I'd probably want the receiver to do 5.1 or better for upgradability.

I listen mostly to Classic Rock and Classical music.

I'm seeing a pair of JBL S26's for around $160 and the Denon AVR-1603 for around $170 at macmall. But those are completely up in the air.

Thanks.

 

[ChristopherDAC]

For about US$100, the Sherwood RD-6108 is quite a decent reciever. Not so flashy as the Sony or Yamaha in the same price range, but it uses an F connector for FM, and it has a real power switch, not just "standby".

 

[Andrew Sch]

Interesting, though I figure for $550 I can probably do better on the receiver (unless you feel that the Sherwood would perform better than something in a higher price range). How about a pair of bookshelves?

 

[anthony_b]

You could probably get a Yamaha htr-5740 for about $260 and with the rest of your budget you can get a pair of Polk Audio bookshelf speakers at closeout prices at Circuit City and have some money left over....good luck

 

[Michael.M.C]

Onkyo 770 HTIB I believe to be your best bet. A 6.1 system its presently on sale for $499 at Circuit City.

 

[Andrew Sch]

How would the above setups stack up to:

$124.88 Dayton 10" Subwoofer from partsexpress
$219.99 Denon AVR-1803 from macmall
$154.79 pair of JBL S26II from top-100-electronics yahoo store

for a subtotal of $499.66 before costs of shipping?

 

[Michael.M.C]

Against the Onyko 770, your fronts probably have two speakers in each, Onkyo have three in each front.

You have no center speaker, no back speakers, in fact you are getting four less speakers than the 6.1 Onkyo set. You'll also have to purchase your own wire & (possibly) cables.

I would guess that shipping from three separate merchants will be another $50 or more?

Four more speakers plus wire for the same money sounds like a much better deal.

 

[anthony_b]

In my opinion you should get the best setup you can afford right now and continue purchasing as the cash flow increases....IMO speakers are the most important factor in a setup.

 

[Andrew Sch]

Let me run one more idea by you guys. How would the sound quality of the Onkyo HTIB system compare to a pair of NHT Superzero XU's with the (allegedly great) Dayton sub and Denon receiver? Or with the JBL S26's?

 

[anthony_b]

If you're seriously into getting something of decent quality, I would avoid HTIB speakers.

 

[DorianBryant]

Agreed, avoid the HTIB. The set-up mentioned with the S26's would be a great start.

 

[NicholasL]

Spend the bulk of the cash on speakers. You can and will upgrade the receiver soon enough. But speakers are usually there to stay.

Seriously though...what kind of college student listens to classical?! =P

 

[Philip Hamm]

You can get much more for your money by buying older NOS (new in stock) or refurbished models. I am thrilled with my 1997 Pioneer DD5.1 VSX-D606S that I got refurbished in 2000 for under $150.

 

[Tingwe]

how about....that dayton sub, an Onkyo 502 or Denon 1604, and scour your local BB for a pair of Athena AS-F2 for $70/pair!! $450 before tax and s/h

 

[Andrew Sch]

I was so close to buying the Onkyo setup and now am having second thoughts, due to the above posts. Are the above posts regarding HTIB setups in general or this particular one? Every review I've read on the Onkyo's has been praising them without reservation.

Also, (more importantly) could you please explain how I could get the as-f2's for $70 / pair? Thanks.

 

[Chris Quinn]

If you want 5.1 for $500 this deal is tough to beat.

 

[Ben LG]

I think the Tyke package Chris linked is very nice. I was just browsing around before I saw your post and thought Id throw in another option for speakers, if it were me I would think about upgrades like adding a sub, surrounds etc. later.

Infinity Entra Loudspeakers for $300

Demos for a little cheaper

 

[James Phung]

if you like infinitys, you might want to try finding a good deal on the floorstanding Infinity Alpha 50s, they're on clearance and open box at Circuit City. I just got some for $220/ea for open box speakers (they retailed for $499/ea, and were on sale for $289 but CC gave me a deal). There's also a promotion at many Infinity dealers, if you spend $400 on speakers you get a free pair of Infinity Primus 150 bookshelf speakers ($200/pair). CC said the alpha 50s wouldn't qualify for the promotion however when I went to get them anyway, the another CC guy said they would so I got them. The entra 3s were replaced with the infinity primus 250, you might want to give those a listen also.

 

[Drew_W]

The Infinity Primus 150s got glowing reviews from Stereophile. Which was interesting, but they should be on your short list of speakers to take a look at because of that fact....not to say that the Stereophile review is to be taken as fact, but a recommendation.

Otherwise, hit up eBay, audiogon, whatever other used resources you can find. You'll get some damn good bargains there and you'll be able to piece together a NICE $500 system in short order.

 

[Dean_S]

The NHT SuperZero XUs are/were on sale for $75 ea on onecall.com when I looked last week. It is the best sounding speaker anyone has mentioned in this thread but a sub is a must with these. You could get 5 at that price and still have $125 left over for a recv and sub. I know that's not much for both, so you could just get 3 NHTs and use the rest for sub and recv and add rears later. I'm considering getting 5 of these for my bedroom system.