What Reasonably Priced Sound System to go with Bravia 1080P LCD?

Originally Posted by James330I

bite the bullet bro and spend a little money on a sound system. You've invested enough on a nice TV..do it justice by investing in good sound system. Spend some time at your local audio store, and listen to nice setups. maybe this will change your mind about your sound options

The thing is, most of the a/v gearheads will just laugh at your sound budget. Not one of us will be happy recommending you a system for less than $500, cos you know..we really don't pay attention to those. Some of the guys here will spend $500 just on cables alone.

We're better off just telling you to go to your local best buy and pick up the first system that is under $500. It will probably meet your needs. Onecall.com and vanns.com all have great selection of HTIBs (home theater in a box)

The sad thing is, I've spent the last few weeks in big box stores looking at their 'HT in a box' setups from yamaha without being impressed at all...a friend of mine just flew out to new york and said he would try to find me a Polk system since he's a polk-fanatic. Time will tell what my bargain hunting nets me .....thanks again for all the feedback guys

A nice bargain system that would come close to your budget would be a
Denon 1908 302.00 http://cgi.ebay.com/SELD-DENON-AVR-1..._trkparms=240%
SVS speakers http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/spe...er-system.html

Your total investment will be about 1500.00 dollars. This is something that you ahve to be careful on, haveing that big beautiful tv does ABSOLUTELY nothing if you dont have a respectable sound to go with it.
Before you go out and buy this or decide how much to you wanna spend on this, do me a favor. Sit down and watch a scary movie on tv, even one your familiar with. When a truely scary part just begins, turn the soudn off and watch the scene. Then come back on here and tell me if you want to put only 500.00 dollars into your hometheatre.

Or take a look at something like this, DHT-789BA by denon. It will give you a good base that supports all new audio formats and your speakers so that you have a good base to start with. Use this system for about a year or whatever you need to be build up funds to start investing in your system and then slowly build it up.

Find yourself a friend who works at best buy to get you the hookup! For $500 you can get a decent receiver...but for something out of the box that will make your average person happy...I'd go with this yamaha system: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1202648988902

I don't recommend this if you are looking to build off of it much in the future. NONE of it is stellar, but for the price...I think Yamaha is the best you can get...and you won't be disappointed.

When I first upgraded my "home theater" I had the same mindset as you... I only wanted to spend about $500 just to get "better" sound than the tv so I first looked into HTIB setups... well that went away quick as I started auditioning speaker setups. I have been a speaker fanatic (I had a 7k sound system in my 3er lol) forever, and it continued onto home theater i guess. I started with a speaker package from klipsch (Quintet SL) along with a onkyo 605 and a ksw-10 subwoofer. The setup was a little over 1k, but it sounded FANTASTIC (the subwoofer was weak tho). I definitely recommend this setup for you... You can find the quintet sl speaker package for around $550 if you look hard enough (ebay or something) and you can purchase an onkyo 606 for under 300 if you do a lil searchin as well. I GUARANTEE you will be blown away, although I do recommend you holding off on buying a cheap sub until you can afford a decent one.

I feel that that is the best compromise for you between getting a HTIB setup and spending a lot more money buying separates... I got rid of that setup because I started getting more and more into the whole home theater thing, and I increased my budget. I bought a klipsch f-2 setup (it was like $1500 or so) but I sold that a few weeks later because I wanted a wall-mountable speaker setup. After auditioning quite a few sets, I settled with the Klipsch XL-23 setup. It ran under 2k for the speakers, and I paired it with a cadence csx-15 subwoofer. As far as wall mountable setups go under 2500, I definitely think it is the best... I since sold my receiver (i only got to enjoy my speakers for a few days ) and am having the biggest headache finding the receiver I want for a decent price (i actually had a buddy who was going to come through but I found out yesterday, after waiting for a week, that he couldn't get it).

ANYWAY, i really feel that once you realize how important the sound system is for your home theater, your priority/budget will grow... and if you can't afford it all at once, buy it step by step!

yea, unless you are buying this system to "throw" it away 1-2 years later (i mean that seriously too), either dont buy one and save $1000 at least or just flat out spend a minimum of $1000. Before the invention of the "home theater in a box" nobody had surround sound because it was good quality, had seperate components and was at least 1 to 2 thousand dollars. now I can go to walmart on black friday and pick a "stellar" system up for less than $100. Now am i saying you are looking for the $100 system. No, but the difference between a $500 audio system and a $1000 to $2000 system is so vastly underestimated, its disgusting. Let alone the ability to upgrade later on, quality control and even standard warranty times are much better (most real speakers have 5-10 year warranties, including labor, not 1 year parts 90 days labor). Either buy it right or dont bother. Seriously. Not trying to be a dick, but you WILL be throwing it away soon if you spend only $500 on audio.

Quality over quantity.

Step 1: Buy a $500 receiver and two $125 bookshelves to start.

Step 2: Then buy a $500 subwoofer

Step 3: Then buy a $250 center

Step 4: Then buy two $250 bookshelves for the front and move the old ones to the rear.

$2000 total over the long haul and it will blow away a $500 all in one every step of the way.

Trust me, I am a professional.

Revel

Originally Posted by Dcha

Revel

I was thinking a set of 800Ds all around would be in his budget.