Upgrade advice needed.....with a budget! (1 Viewer)

[Mark Gurney]

My neighbor and good friend has been wanting to upgrade his existing home theater for quite some time, and now that he has his tax return in hand, he's ready to go. Currently he has the following, which as you can see, is screaming for an upgrade. (I do not have model numbers, basic descriptions below):

Sony 27" Wega

Toshiba DVD player (1st/2nd Gen., no DTS)

Aiwa HTB w/

Receiver (Dolby Pro Logic)

Aiwa 5 speaker set (no sub), rated at 75W a speaker

In my opinion, the following needs to be upgraded in order of "necessity":

1. Receiver

2. Speakers

3. DVD Player

His budget is $600, and he would really like to stay close to that if he could. Finding upgrades/replacements where he will see a signicant difference while staying within his budget has proved to be extremely difficult. Any comments, ideas, thought, suggestions, whatever would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

 

[Michael Caicedo]

For Speakers, you can't beat the JBL NSP1 package, especially at this rate:
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=44961
Oh and definately save some money for a sub. Sony SAWM40 is a choice usually thrown around here for < 200 bucks

 

[Ted Lee]

how about a htb setup? at 600 i think something like the kenwood 504 might be a good choice. that way he can knock out the receiver, speaker and sub in one shot. it looks like his tv is pretty decent but i don't know about his dvd player.

have him listen...he'll probably be pretty impressed. it'll run circles around his current aiwa system - that's for sure!

 

[Bob McElfresh]

I Second the motion for the Kenwood HTB-504 system. For $499 you get:

- A decent DD/DTS receiver with SVideo switching

- 5 tone-matched speakers

- External powered sub.

Stereophile Guide to Home Theater (~March 1999) did a review of this system. They compared it to a "budget" set of NHT speakers that sold for $1100 and the Kenwood set held it's own for movies.

I just set this system up for a friend and was quite impressed with what you get for the money.

You can pick this set up at Sears, Costco, and perhaps at some etailers, but then you have to add shipping.

 

[Mark Gurney]

Thanks for the info all. We finally did decide to go with the Kenwood HTB-504.

 

[steve nn]

You did good.Have to have a sub and you will like the 504.Am glad I listened to when I bought mine.