looking for system for under $1000 (1 Viewer)

[brett GR]

i am looking for opinions on the best surround sound system for a 20x20 family room under $1000. Are the hometheater systems with built in dvd any good? i am presently building the room, so all wire will be in the walls.

any opinions or tips welcome.

thanks,
brett

 

[John Brill]

For under $1000...

Yamaha HTIB YHT-B5500
Onkyo HTIB HT-S777C

Both aren't bad with the sub probably being the weakest link in both systems but a decent sub would chew up a good chunck of your budget not leaving you with much.

JB

 

[Yung]

Brett,

That's a pretty decent size room, so I am not sure a HTIB solution would be best. The Pioneer VSX-1014TX-K receiver goes for around $450 from some authorized dealers. I have read that this is receiver is comparable to the Pioneer Elites. You can combine it with some speakers in the JBL Northridge E series that should fit your budget.
A set up consisting of the 1014TX and JBL E30 (2), EC35, E10 (2) and EP250 sub would be under $1,100 delivered.

 

[Ian-Fl]

I always think the best thing you can invest in is a good sub. Hsu has the STF-1 or STF-2 subs. http://www.hsuresearch.com/
They also have the ventriloquist speaker set if you want to go with bookshelves.
The other set of speakers are the Fluance SX-HTB set for $260 plus $60 shipping. I have the SX-HTB set the mains have an excellent full sound.
For a Receiver JandR.com has the Onkyo Tx-Sr502S for $278 shipped. It's a good featured receiver with component ins and outs.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

I would say the system Yung described would be pretty hard to beat. What I might do slightly differently is go E50s instead of E30s for the mains. They're a really great main speaker. If they put the budget up too high then I would hold off on surrounds and buy them in a month or so. They would really make an impactful difference up front i think.

You may also want to consider an STF2 or other sub, they can be a bit more accurate and less boomy. A Dayton 10" would also be a very good ultra budget sub if you wanted to keep the cost down some more.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

The more I think about it, the more i take back what i've just said 5 min ago. I would maybe spend a little less on receiver and a little more on the subwoofer. A good subwoofer will make more impact than anything else in a system that already sounds very good, but a weak sub can really make things sound sub-par, especially at loud volumes.

I would go with the following:

Receiver: Panasonic XR25 ($180 online)
Mains: JBL E50 ($250, J&R)
Center: JBL EC25 ($120, J&R)
Surrounds: JBL E10 ($90, J&R)
Subwoofer: SVS PB10 ($400, SVS)

Total: Around $1100 after shipping

J&R has free shipping on all their JBL stuff. SVS is doing a $400 pre-order on their new 10" sub that has an amazing 18hz F3 point. The Panasonic digital amps are supposed to have an amazing sound for their cost, especially w/ digital source material (DVD and CD).