Speakers: Please recommend...

[DanielJW]

Hi everyone,

I'm a student who will be living in an apartment next year during college, and I just sold of all of my PC speakers because I want to run my computer through a home theater setup.

Like I said, I'll be living in a comfortable but not enormous apartment. Initially I was going to buy a refurbished Onkyo 501 (TX-SR501) and some JBL E50 bookshelf speakers from JandR, but I just saw a refurbished Onkyo HTS760 6.1 setup at JandR for $300 as well, and now I'm confused.

I would like to keep everything around $500, but I would say that $600 is my limit. Also, because I am going to be moving frequently, I would like to keep my setup as transportable as possible, which is the original reason I wanted to do the Onkyo501 + E50's.

The bottom line is, I would just like some recommendations and/or feedback on what I've researched so far.

Here are some questions I had:

1.) Can I trust the REFURBISHED Onkyo 501?
2.) Will the E50's give me adequate frequency response (mostly concerned about low end), or are there better speakers in this price range?
and 3.) I eventually plan to add a projector to the setup; would all of this be compatible with say an Infocus X1?

Thank you so much in advance for your help in resolving my confusion.

Best,

Daniel

 

[Tim Stumpf]

I can only speak for the Onkyo 501. You can usually pick it up for around $250 on sale from CC. I personally would not go the refurb route when you can get such a good receiver for that price. I think that refurbs are a crapsshoot and have heard some negative things about getting service if something goes wrong. The 501 is a great entry level receiver. I really like mine.

 

[DonJ]

Check this out for HK refurb products, they come with full manufacturer's warranty.

http://stores.ebay.com/Harman-Audio_...enameZl2QQtZkm

 

[Andrew Pratt]

Daniel there's a nice Denon receiver in the for sale area here that i'd take over a refurb Click Here

For speakers that would leave you with $200-$300 for the set so I'd look at these and if your budget allows stretch add a small sub like this one There's also a set of those JBL's in the for sale area but he hasn't posted a price...assuming he's reasonable you might be able to get the Denon, the used JBL's and the sub all within your budget and you'd have a much nicer system then a typical all in one boxed system...and it would be easier to grow with later on

 

[Cam McFarland]

Daniel,

since you will be in an apartment, you might very well consider the whole Onkyo "in a box" configuration.

Fry's sells the HTS-560(5.1) or whatever it is for $299.00 & you could keep the sub or purchase an HSU STF-2 for $350.00 at CompUSA & you will have party central....

just my .02

- Cam

 

[DanielJW]

I think I am going to end up getting the Onkyo HTS-760 from JR. I've done quite a bit of research on it and it seems that most people are happy with it except that sometimes it doesn't put out enough sound.

My living space isn't that enormous, so I suspect that it will last me a long time. Plus, it doesn't seem like I can go wrong for $300.

Thanks for all of your help,

Daniel