Looking to purchase home theater system $500 and under... (1 Viewer)

[Steve*H]

Looking to purchase home theater system $500 and under, I just bought a 2500 lum. projector and am now looking for a home theater system. I need a dvd player also included in the package. Bestbuy had some around 500 sony and yamaha. Any suggestions on what i should be looking for?

 

[RickRO]

Steve,

I don't own one but I have demoed one in my local store and here they sell them refurbed for less than your budget and with enough left over for a decent DVD player.

For 500 there are several options open to you, however I would try to stay away from the HTiB'S (Home Theater in Box) that combine a receiver and a DVD in one form factor. The Onkyo paired with a DVD player still leaves you with a decent receiver if you ever want to upgrade speakers (the weak link in this unit) and if the DVD player croaks then you don't have to chuck the whole unit.

Like I said I have only heard this unit and I don't own it...but I have read and heard here and on another forum that it is a good "starter unit".

There are many options open to you and I'm sure that there are others here that will "chime in" and provide more options for you.

Regards

Rick

 

[JeffLab]

Definitely stay away from any HTIB with the DVD and receiver built in one unit. You will be much happier buying a separate sound system and a progressive scan dvd player. You will have more options, and better sound quality.

 

[Reginald Trent]

If you are lacking funds I would wait until I could get what would truly enhance my theater system. Especially since you have a projector, I don't think a small sound system would do justice to the large image shown by your projector IMHO.

 

[johnADA]

I just went through myself what your trying to accomplish. It can be done, sound very well against higher end stuff, better than all in one packages, but Ebay is needed.
At Tiger Direct I picked up a refurbed up-converting Samsung DVD player, cost was $90 including shipping.
Ebayed a complete 670 Sony system since people sell complete less than receivers alone. $127 shipped.
Scrapped the speakers from the system which are full ranged that dont sound bad, but miss alot.
A set of KLH Twisties for the rear, $38 shipped. 3 1/4 woofer, 3/4 tweeter.
Set of KLH 3 way bookshelves , $50 shipped.
One KLH center that has 2 5 1/4's and a one inch tweeter.
Kept the subwoofer.
Sold the 5 Sony surrounds for $30.

Sounds alot better than anything I looked at in the same $500 range that uses all full range speakers and isnt a built in all in one which has higher failure rates. 600 Watts, up-converting DVD player and a full use receiver, I'm happy!

 

[Jacob C]

I fully agree. It is very hard to put something decent together with everything for less than $1000. I'd get a panasonic receiver and a set of internet direct speaker. I'm sure someone could recommend something decent. I've found many of the cheap systems out there have bad centers. The voices are often harder to hear than with TV speakers.