Sony Home Theater or other recommendations... (1 Viewer)

[kowalczyk86]

I have a Sony Bravia 32" LCD TV, and I want to add a reciever and speakers (7.1) to complete my home theater (already have DVD player). What does anyone suggest? I wouldn't mind sticking with Sony because I have a Sony TV, but I am open for suggestions. I had a SWEET Yamaha 7.1 receiver with Klipsch speakers long ago, but they are long gone. I am not looking on spending anything like that though right now. Maybe around 600-800 for reciever and 6 speakers with sub. I want to make sure I have a lot of bass. This is something I put together, but am already over $500 without any of the speakers (minus the sub)..

Sony STR DG920 Receiever- $378 from Amazon
Sony SA-W3800 Sub - $178 from Etronics outlet.

Any ideas?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

For that kind of money you're going to need to look at used equipment if you want to buy individual pieces and full-function 7.1 receiver. There is no way to put together even a 5.1 system that isn't garbage on that budget unless you go with a "home theater in a box" - which tend to be bad long-term investments because they lack inputs and outputs and have limited expansion and upgrade potential.

Sony tends (IMHO) to be a bit overpriced, and there's no particular reason to "match" the rest of your stuff to your TV by brand. A Sony receiver or DVD player isn't "more compatible" than a Denon or Onkyo because it is from the same manufacturer.

Speaking of Onkyo, they are one of the manufacturers that make "HTiB" sets that are more flexible and less limited than is typical of the species. Here is one example that is within your budget. It doesn't upconvert via HDMI, and is lacking a couple of other bells and whistles, but at that price you've got to compromise somewhere, and your TV is going to scale everything to its native 768p resolution anyway.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Stephen Tu]

The Onkyo HTS-6100 is in your price range would be more future-proof than the 5100 Joseph linked to (more HDMI inputs, full HDMI sound processing rather than only "pass-through" requiring additional audio connection).

Alternately, maybe drop down to Sony 820 (the upconversion in the 920 is totally unnecessary, TV already going to scale anyway as Joe stated; even if you get new TV that will scale also, as will most BD players) and get speaker system like the Harman Kardon HKTS-18 (5.1, $390 amazon, can add sats for 7.1 for another $99).

I think those options are about the best one can do in that total price range, for new equipment.

 

[kowalczyk86]

I changed some things around. I am going to try and get everything but the sub off of Ebay (new condition) and save a little money that way.

Receiver - ONKYO TX-SR706 7.1
Speakers - Klipsch Synergy Quintet™ III
Subwoofer - Infinity PS210

Should be not much over $1,000 I am hoping.