First home theater... Want to make sure I have my bases covered.

You will definitely want a sub or 2. My system is a different animal when my 2 subs are fired up. There are plenty of good budget friendly options available.

If you are only going with 5 speakers and no future plans for more than you can get a very inexpensive AVR from accessories4less.com You'll want an AVR with 4k.... hddc 2.2 I think it's called. That allows your 4k signal to pass through to your TV. Without it you won't get 4k.

Monoprice.com is a great place to buy speaker wire and any cables you need in the future.

What size room do you have? Shape? Flooring?

 

Agreed on the subwoofer (or subwoofers, depending upon the room size and circumstances). If you're going to buy a nice TV and have a full complement of speakers not having a sub would be an omission you would likely regret.

 

Take your time. Check things out good. Then check again. Check on E-Bay. You can find some very good used stuff. And some new stuff at a good price. Keep in mind. You can add on & up grade as you go.
Poor Man Dan

 

I would wait on the sub...I had Deftechs in my last home theater (in the home we recently sold) and the built in subs in the Deftechs did a great job...even the center channel had a sub and I never felt a lack of bass. Have a jack placed for cable/satellite, and I would get an Apple TV as well...I have and use both regularly. I have an Oppo blue ray player but honestly its rarely used..

 

Poor Man Dan ain't lying. Take a look at my sound rack. There not a single piece that wasn't used and it all works perfectly. Most used gear works as well as new and for a fraction of the price. New isn't necessarily better!
Granted 99.9% of you folks don't use this type of equipment but the premise is the same.

 

Definietly keep your eye out for factory refurbished gear (check out accessories4less.com for receivers, etc.) or open box specials to save money. As long as they come with a warranty and a defective return policy, you should feel safe and save some bucks.

I think my entire main HT setup was purchased via that route: BenQ projector (factory refurb, purchased direct), Denon receiver (Best Buy open box), Oppo Blu-ray (bought used from an HTF forum member via the classifieds), Polk and Paradigm speakers (Polks bought refurbed from their Ebay store, Paradigms from a local store on open-box), cables from Monoprice. Only thing I bought new was the Roku player.