Home Theater In a Box ?

I'd start by looking at Denon products. I've owned surround sound receivers by Sony, Pioneer, Onkyo and Yamaha over the years, and I've never liked one as much as I like my current Denon. The ease of setup and calibrating is amazing, and the features for the price are great.

I honestly don't know much about the quality of Denon speakers(I use Klipsch speakers with my Denon receiver) if you buy an all-in-1 surround package, but if its anywhere near the quality of their receivers they should be great.

I bought a theater in a box when I first moved into the new house. It actually had two different brands in it. The receiver was a nice Denon and the speakers were Boston Acoustic. The whole system sounds great and didn't rape my wallet.

I bought a 7.1 onkyo system 2 years ago and have been pretty impressed with it since then.

Chanur_sl said:

Where did you get it Wolfen? I have read good things about Denon and Onkyo.

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Best Buy, but it's been a couple years.

Speaking of Polk Audio Newegg has the Monitor 70 floor standing speakers on sale for $99 each. Almost bought a pair yesterday to put in the office.

Www.avsforums.com

HTIB = waste of money.

If your budget is under $500 or so, don't even waste your money. Find a $100 sound bar and call it good, you won't see a massive improvement with any HTIB.

With $500 you can put together a nice sounding 2 channel system and expand it down the road. 1-2k will get you something that will blow any non audiophile away.

Budget rule of thumb, 25% on receiver and 75% on speakers. Receiver tech is always changing. A good set of speakers will last 30 years.

Its all in your ears and what your expectations are. A good sound bar is less and sounds better than most boxed home theaters. Its not surround sound though. I'd go that route and buy your home theater system piece by piece over a year and pick up the receiver last.

I hear those guys selling speakers at the gas station have some righteous shit for pennies on the dollar.

I really like Yamaha as well, have had a number of their receivers over the years and keep going back. Very good in terms of bang for the buck.

If I were doing a build for under a grand tomorrow I would find a Denon\Yamaha\Onkyo receiver at the 299.99 price point and spend the rest on whichever of these I could afford. At least 3.1 would be a very good start, and add the rears in the next few months. The difference in 5.1 and 7.1 is negligible with good equipment.

http://www.hsuresearch.com/products/value1pkg.html

BrutulTM_sl said:

I have the Monitor 50s that are very similar to those. What I did was to buy the little kit with the sub, center channel, and 4 satellites and set it up as a 5.1 system and then down the road got the floor standing speakers and used the two extra satellites as my 7.1 speakers. I'm very happy with the setup but I wouldn't call myself an audiophile.

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I guess I am kind of an audiphile at the home but at the office I was just looking for some speakers. At the house I am old school, tube amps and reel to rell 95% of the time. People who have never heard a good 1/4" reel to reel would be suprised at the quality.

I'm very happy with a denon receiver/mirage nanosat setup.

www.accessories4less.comfor the denon. Although you can find really good deals occasionally at other places too, likehttp://www.electronics-expo.comorwww.vanns.com. Just be patient and keep an eye out. Getting a good price on electronics is definitely a waiting game. I got one of my denons for a great price from Crutchfield of all places.

A4L is an official refurb dealer, but they're better than other refurb places like Dakmart because they negotiated a full denon factory warranty on their refurbs. The magic is in the Audyssey room correction tech. It's awesome and makes any speaker setup sound like a million bucks. Make sure the receiver you buy has at least Audyssey MultEQ, and preferably Audyssey MultEQ XT. Don't be fooled by other room correction tech, like that found in Yamaha stuff. Audyssey is the real deal. You can find it on Marantz and Onkyo as well.

I'm so in love with these little mirage speakers that I have two sets, one in the den and one for the computer here. I bought a full 5.1 set of those polks at newegg btw and vastly prefer the mirages. Your mileage may vary.

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-ZpN5Lqb...er-System.html

You can find them cheaper than that if you're patient. I'm even impressed with the bundled sub. I was planning on selling it and replacing, but it is great, agile, smooth. Anyway, love the nanosats. This setup will blow any typical htib away (probably any htib period). Just keep in mind Audyssey is the key. Unless you've spent a lot of time and money treating your room, Audyssey will make a bigger difference in the sound than what sort of speaker you buy. Seriously.

http://www.audyssey.com/audio-technology/multeq/tourfor an explanation of what exactly it does.

edit: just wanted to point out that Audyssey 2EQ doesn't cut it. It doesn't include bass management, one of the major components. You will see that on some of the lower end receivers. MultEQ or higher only.

Cheapest denon refurb at A4L that includes Audyssey MultEQ, $200

http://www.accessories4less.com/make...eceiver/1.html

This receiver on amazon currently is $300.

This is a more expensive option with more features if you think you want them, plus MultEQ XT, $330

http://www.accessories4less.com/make...D-Ready/1.html

This one is $450 at amazon.

Just make sure to check the specifications on how many HDMI inputs you are getting with each reciever, and make sure it's enough for all your devices(for now, and the next several years). Messing with an HDMI switch is a pain in the ass if you have to add more. That $200 refurb Denon has 4, the $450 has 6 including one on the front for temporary devices (phone, tablet, laptop, camera/recorder etc). I don't even have a ton of stuff and I use 4 with my satellite box, Xbox 360, PS3, and Roku. Would be nice to have an extra on the front for plugging in a portable device, as it stands now if I want to plug in my laptop/PC or a phone or whatever I just have to go straight into the TVs extra HDMI port, and not through my stereo unless I want to screw with getting behind my receiver into the sea of random cords and unplugging something.