Dad wants an upgrade for under $500- help please! (1 Viewer)

[Thomas_Berg]

after seeing/hearing my new setup, he figures he wants to upgrade our family/tv room system. here's what it has now:
4 old in-wall speakers (he claims they're great, but he really has no clue. and yes, that's only 4)
an old sub of some kind
35-40" Trinitron TV, not sure on model but it's semi-new
old yamaha amp ______
old yamaha pre-amp --> all about 10 years old
old yamaha tuner ____/
old yamaha tape deck /
old yamaha cd player /
new Mitsubishi VHS player (it was ~$500 two yrs ago)
he wants a new receiver and a dvd player for around $500. he really knows how to get ripped off 'cause he hires people to come to the house and tell him what to get. i want to get him something he will like and not rip him off. i also NEED to convince him to get another speaker!! here's what i'm thinking:
Onkyo 595 ($359)
a good dvd player (HELP)
one speaker (HELP)
he really has no clue what he's doing but insists the in-walls and sub are great speakers and will not replace them. i know it's bad, but any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! thanks!
-thomas

 

[Nicholas A. Gallegos]

$500 isn't a really big budget to play with if your dad needs both a new receiver AND DVD player. If you're going with that Onkyo model, that'll leave you with roughly $140 to spare. I can't even think of a player I can wholeheartedly recommend for that price level.
If he extends his budget a tad bit (like maybe $50 or so), he can open up the door to several good models. The Panasonic RV-31 is a decent

 

[Thomas_Berg]

where the heck did you find a 595 for $360?

jandr.com lists it for $399 but if you call and say i got it for less, they can go as low as $359. it's the best deal in town now!
yeah, i know $500 is not nearly enough but that's one thing i need to convince him of. i'll look into the RV-31 and try to get him to cough up a few more bucks for a center channel. what would you recommend for about $100 (+/- about $50)?

 

[Matt DeVillier]

$500 is calling it close, but doable. I got my Sony DB-840 receiver for $350 shipped (from soundcity), and it shouldn't be hard to find some of last-year's dvd players (Pioneer DV-333, Panny DVD-RV30, Toshiba SD-1600) for < $150 (I just sold a new RV30 for $130). I agree though that you really need to convince him to budget additionally for a quality center channel. A stopgap solution would be to use the TV's built in speakers as a center channel if possible.

 

[Ryan Schnacke]

If he want to continue using the external amplifier then you'll want to get a receiver with pre-amp outputs. The 595 does not have them.

 

[Nicholas A. Gallegos]

Ryan:
I highly doubt that a 10-year old Yamaha power amp is going to have 5-channel pre-ins. At the budget Thomas is limited to, it makes more sense to get a good receiver that will replace both parts.
------------------