Help with starting to upgrade my system (1 Viewer)

[Levi Wallach]

Hey guys,

I wanted to explain my situation and see if anyone had any thoughts or advice. I'm moving in with my girlfriend in a few weeks and so am starting to think about my home theater again after its been static for the last 3+ years. I have a 27" Sony TV, 4-year old Toshiba DVD player (can't remember the model number off hand), a Pioneer DD 5.1 receiver which I also got around 4 years ago, maybe 3.5 years ago. For speakers my fronts are Polks (about 18" high and heavy!), center is an optimus, and rears are cheapo KLH smallish bookshelf speakers. Sub I think is KLH, but all of this stuff is at home, so I apologize for not having the model numbers, which I'll post as soon as I get home.

Ok, so obviously lots of upgrades are needed! Due to budget constraints, I'm trying to do this incrementally and because we're putting this stuff in a 12'x15' bedroom with and wanting to keep things looking decent, I'm looking at upgrading the speakers first. The front left and right polks are nice, relatively speaking, but they are just huge, and the rest of the system is kind of crappy. Instead of getting an HTIB, I thought I'd just get a HT speaker system. I wanted something that has smaller speakers, but decent quality, and so far what I've found is the JBL SCS135. Apparently you can get these for $250 online, which is definitely within budget.

Ok, so here are some questions for you all. One - does anyone have these and how have they been? Are there any other systems I should be looking at within the same general price range ($200-350)? If I do this, I will have some speakers to get rid of. How can I find out how much I should charge and what's the best place to sell? Yard sale? Here? eBay? I know not to expect much for most, but I would hope to at least get something decent for the polks, no?

I think that's about it for now. Thanks for any help! I'll post the specs on the speakers tonight.

 

[Levi Wallach]

Ok, as promised, here are the specifics:

Receiver: Pioneer VSX-D6075
DVD: Toshiba SD-2008U
Front Left and Right: Polk RT7-BLK
Center Speaker: Optimus Pro CS1
Rear Left and Right: JBL TLX-105
Subwoofer: JBL TLX-PS10

 

[VinhT]

The JBL SCS135 set seems like a good choice, for two reasons. First, it's an entire speaker set with subwoofer that falls within your budget. Second, you were asking how they sound. Well, Best Buy has the SCS135 satellite speakers on display in their home theater section, so you can go and demo them for yourself to see if you like them (Springfield for sure, and also at Bailey's Crossroads I think). The only alternative I can think of is the JBL NSP-1 package, but it doesn't leave much left for a sub.

As for selling speakers on eBay, it's quite difficult to do if your speakers aren't currently popular models. For example, a past & present search of "polk rt7" turns up nothing, meaning no one has listed that particular model in the past few months. Of course, somebody could always search for "polk" and your listing will be included in the results, but that's a lot of listings to sift through and yours might be overlooked. My advice, just keep your speakers around for a secondary home theater like in the bedroom or something.

 

[Isaac K]

I've had my JBL SCS135's for about a month and I love them. Good sound, speakers are nice and compact, and the sub seems pretty powerful. I bought them on Ebay, direct from the manufacturer for a great price.