Well im working on my projector and basically thinking one step ahead. I want to get a mean surround sound system and looking at about a 400 budget. My first thought was to get the logitech z5500 but after reading reviews I've decided it may be too bassy. So I figured why not just get something already made for a home theater setup, so far what ive been looking up is

Onkyo HT-S580

and some sony dream system setups. I like the speakers on the stands, lol

basically what my question boils down to is what would you guys get or have gotten for about the same as my budget?

Thanks in advance

My Sony ES receiver is starting to die. The left channel is cutting out. I am leaning towards a Yamaha receiver because I like the night listening mode that compresses the audio so you don't have super quiet passages followed by huge explosions. I don't want to wake up the kids. Yamaha has always made pretty decent receivers and they are on the bleeding edge of surround technology.

What about something like this. Yamaha theater in a box

Personally I would choose something a little more robust. Sound is the make or break component for good theater. Something like this maybe...

My vote is for an Onkyo system. I have never been let down by thier receivers.
This is the Onkyo that I bought this year. Onkyo TX-SR603B

I've actually been researching which 5.1 system to get for a while now. I think the best place to do research is in the AVSforum speaker and HTIB section. I think there is a general consensus that the following setup is quite good for its price:

Athena Point 5 MKII: $200 (5 speakers)
Athena ASP-4000: $150 (sub)
A Pioneer or Onkyo Reciever: $200-300

Total: $550-650

For the same price as a HTIB, you can put together a quality system that sounds ten times better.

edit: whoops, sorry I see now that your price range is around $400. If I were you, I would hold off on buying a system now, and save up a little more money to put together a good system.

Awesome ideas, there really is no need for me to rush into a system now, this means that I could save up and by a nice receiver, speakers, and sub. As far a a receiver goes what is something good to look for? As far as I know onkyo is the brand to get for receivers. Is there a good site where I could educate my self on home theater setup (ie. what speakers work best with which receiver)?

Thanks for the input and keep the ideas coming

hey sctele thanks for avsforum that is a great site

here are my ideas and paths i took regarding home theater. (hope i don't sound too opinionated )

1. the speakers are the most important part of any decent audio system. most half decent recievers will sound fairly alike, .. .but the speakers will make or break the system. don't bother with logitech or bose or MOST (not all) home theater in a box etc, .. if you want something you will be happy with in the long term,
2. 5.1 is plenty.
3. If you live in a small apartment, .. skip this point.

ELSE

if you can build a lumenlab projector, .. you can probably build a HIGH quality subwoofer eg. a dayton 12 " DVC at around $100 coupled with whatever sub amp you can get for $100 (probably 200 to 300 watts) plus a sheet of MDF for $20 will get you an amazing value. Of course, there are other choices out there too. I'd personally suggest a horn loaded sub, but many will not have the patience / skill / space to implement it. My point is, if there's one aspect of your HT that you can improve by DIY'ing (at substantial savings over retail item), it's the sub, .. it will make a big difference, and less critical than other speaker designs. i still laugh whenever i see the "toy" subs retailers try to sell for $500 to $100 or more, . knowing that they probably have a $40 driver in there.


4. Look for home theater speakers that have a -3db response of at 70 to 80 Hz or below (at least in the front, center and left channels). this will allow you to cross the sub at 80Hz or below, . at which point bass is relatively non - directional, ... giving you more placement (or hiding) options for the sub. I personally went with an HSU ventriloquist satellite speaker system when it was on sale at comp usa some years ago, .. because i figured that at (a little above $100 for 6 speakers), it wasn't worth my while trying to build something better. they have an interesting approach to maintaining frequency response. In my case, i run an adire shiva driver (bought it at $130 before the price rocketted) in a big ported enclosure tuned to 17Hz

http://www.hometheatersound.com/equipment/...t_vt12_stf1.htm

BTW, .. those athenas sound good too, .. i head them at a friend's place

5. you don't have to spend big $$ on a reciever, if your speakers are halfway efficient and/or your room is small (as in my case). .... some thing like this might work (i have an older model , .. sa-xr10, and couldn't be more pleased for the $140 i payed for it.) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001JXAY...8&s=electronics

6. many will not agree with me, .. but it's just an opinion, .. i haven't yet heard one onkyo or sony reciever (at ANY price range) that i like, .. the onkyos all sound non-offensive but muffled, .. and the sony's overly bright sounding / artificial. My point is, everyone hears different, .. you decide what works for you.

7. don't get taken in by expensive speaker cable , .. 14 ga home depot wire is plenty.


hope that helped,

carlos067: You're quite welcome. I've found AVSforum to be an invaluable site for anything home theater related.

zobsky: Very informative post. I myself would very much like to build my own speakers. However, due to the complexity of such an endeavor and the lack of introductory material to the subject, I find myself daunted by how difficult this project would be. I would highly recommend you write up a little intro into the subject (if you have the time, that is). I'm sure many on this forum would be indebted to you, myself in particular!

Dang, ... too much to cover in a single post, . .and i don't even know half of what there is to know

the good folks at diyaudio.com should have plenty of advice.

some hints:
1. diy subwoofers are fairly easy to build, and are a good value compared to commercial offerings, .. plenty of design programs out there (winisd for example)
2. for main speakers (for HT purposes), .. i'd suggest looking into a simple two-way, rather than three way designs. Look for something with frequency response 80Hz minimum, ... 50 - 60Hz, preferable. .. the lower you can cross your sub, the better.
3. Look for designs with good dispersion (since, typically, more than one person will be watching a movie). several factors at play here, .. kinda complex to explain
4. the center channel will make / break the experience, since most of the info is coming from there.

if there's something specific you'd like to know, do ask (no guarantees of a correct answer though .. ).

True,
Looking for a reciever can be a chore. There are a lot of folks who shop by "Specs" and others who shop by "Ear". The basic problem is the speakers. If you cant match your home speakers that you have/will have, you can mismatch the reciever and speakers and get "soso" sound. When I sold stereo I always started with the speakers first and then flushed out with components. If you havent decided on a receiver yet, try to get a listen to a few friends systems and see if there is something there you really like. If you still cant do that, then tell your salesperson to make sure there is no conditioning going on and tell him to run the sound through some speakers that are designed for a wide range of music. That way you stand a better chance at getting a receiver that matches your needs. Personally I would buy the speakers and receiver at the same time if you can. Rule of thumb for speakers is that they should cost half of your whole system.
Seriously, they are that important.

SJ.

Wow guys thanks for all the advice, I got tied up last weekend so next weekend Im going to go check out what some stores have around here, find what I like and then look for it online, I dont think I will take the diy way since it is very time consuming although it is fulfilling... well maybe diy if I find some time. Here is what I'm thinking of so far...

Onkyo HT-S780S but just as a hold me over since it is in my budget and I researched the receiver and alot of people really like it... but then I plan on getting Athena Point 5 MKII and then... A nice dayton sub/ or diy sub

also onkyo has the s780s for 400 shipped with the DVCP702S dvd player for free, I figure maybe I could get a couple of bucks for it on ebay or keep it if it is nice

I'm telling you, check out the panasonic sa-xr50 if you want cheap with solid specs. Paradigm is a good speaker brand also.


Erock

After doing much research on AVSForum I finally pulled the trigger a few weeks ago. I went with the Athena's mentioned above with a Onkyo 503. I could not be happier. For $550 this systems ROCKS my HT room which is only 10' x 12'. Before this I had a SONY HTIB. Boy I didn't realize how bad it sucked!

I've been looking for a 5.1 system that can take atleast 3 inputs (cable box, DVD and Xbox MediaCenter) that isn't a huge box. I got a bought a Motorola DPC-501 off woot.com and it does most of what I want but ist 40+lbs and 9--10" big. Some of that is becasue of the 500W, I'm not a kid anymore and really don't need 500W. The wife hates the huge box that we don't really have a place for. The other option is the home theater DVD players that have 5.1 built in and sometines include an optical input, but I don't need another DVD player just want a simple receiver that decodes 5.1 (DTS, SRS and ProLogic II) with a few inputs. haven't ben able to find it does any one have any suggestions???

Like I said, ... look at any of the panasonic SA-XR.... HT offerings. They are quite compact, efficient and good sounding (not to mention inexpensive), as they use digital amplifiers.

Excellent work BB! I recently bought my Athena setup as well (a few weeks back). Here's what I got:

Athena Point 5 system
Athena AS-P400 (this sub rocks!)
Pioneer VSX-816-K

I'm glad you're happy with your setup! I know I am!

where did you find the best price on the athena components?

onecall.com for the Point 5 - $200 shipped
audioadvisor.com for the sub. - $170 shipped

Be aware. The Point 5 is no longer being manufactured and I believe all of the authorized Athena retailers are sold out. People are still able to find them on ebay. You might look at the Athena Mirca 6 5.1 system. $300 and that includes the sub. These would be for a small to mid size room. I don't think they would fill a large room. For a review go to avsforum.com speaker forum.

I almost bought the 816 but Onkyo has a 1 yr warranty on refurbs and Pioneer only had 90 days. They are both excellent entry level receivers.

thanks for the response.

I have an opportunity to buy the spherex xbox 5.1 system for $130 which seems to be an excellent deal. Anyone have experience with this setup?

I bought the Point 5 system from Amazon.com. However, they themselves use Onecall.com. The one thing I really regret is not buying from Onecall.com in the first place, as they were offering free shipping at the time. I instead payed $30 extra for shipping from Amazon. So in total, I paid $230 when I could have only paid @200 if I had bought straight from Onecall.com

I really wanted the Athena AS-P400, as I had heard many great things about this sub. I was going to get the AS-P4000, but people on AVSforum.com stated that the AS-P400 was better as it is a front firing sub as compared to the 4000, which is a downward firing sub. So I waited until I saw a 400 being sold on ebay, where I snagged it for $135, including shipping.

I bought the Pioneer VSX-816K after much deliberation. I was originally going to go for an Onkyo, but then I went to a Best Buy near my workplace just to check out the recievers, and I saw that they had an VSX-816k as an open-box sale. I opened up the box, saw that the receiver had never been used (everthing was in plastic, and there were no scratches on the reciever itself), and decided to buy it. I was assured that I would be able to return it within 30 days for a full refund if I didn't like it. I therefore purchased it for $217, and have been very pleased with its performance thus far.

So in total:

Point 5: $230
AS-P400: $135 (and yes, you definitely need to buy a subwoofer to flesh out the Point 5 system!)
VSX-816K: $217
Cables (not included with the speakers): ~$50
Speaker Stands: $60

Total = $692




I probably would have gone with an Onkyo 503, but the Pioneer really caught my eye for some reason. If I had more money, I would probably would have gone with the Pioneer VSX-1015TXK (a THX certified reciever which was about $100 more than the VSX-816K).

BTW, have you guys been able to find a good pair (read: cheap) speaker stands for the Point 5 system? I got mine from Walmart, but the Point 5 speakers do not fit well on them. If you guys can recommend some speaker stands that would be available locally, please let me know! Thanks!

I don't know of any but here is the link to the AVS Forum Athena Owner's Thread

I am sure you can something there and if not post and I am sure someone will have an answer.

Try these speaker stands. Cheap and Easy.

SJ

I just pulled the trigger on 90% of my new system.. literally 15 minutes ago.

I purchased:

ADVENT Heritage Dual 4" 2-way Center
ADVENT H300 Heritage 6in 2-way pair
ADVENT H200 Heritage 5in 2-way pair
ONKYO TXSR504 7.1 Receiver (in silver to match the fronts of the advents)

total from accessories4less.com was $388 using the free shipping coupon (saved me $73.. I can supply if you want) and $2 bonus for a new account. This leaves me looking for a sub, probably an Athena P4000 or similar for $100-200 to complete my sub $600 5.1 system (no room for rears yet) that should blow HTIB out of the water.

the reviews from avs forum and great price w/ the free shipping made the deal sweet enough that I am confident without hearing the setup. these speakers are currently at less than half the original msrp. the prices have been going up steadly $5 every few days since they hit the fan at avs forum and everyone has been scooping them up.

Any good 5.1 systems for us poor college kids in the 200-300 range? How do you think a 5.1 surround set for computer would compare to a cheap home theater surround?

I saw these...
Logitech Surround sound setup for under 300. Comes with a subwoofer and wireless rear speakers.

Anyone know if they might do the trick?

I found a set of speakers from Partsexpress. The DIY'ers source for speaker equipment, that has put together their own set of speakers (kinda like LL's evo). So you know that all the specs are for real, and not exaggerated crap like Pyramid, boasting a low 55Hz response range out of 2 or 3 inch sattelite speakers.
Then I got a pair of satellite speakers (same ones as in the 5 pc set, so they're timbre matched) to round out my 7 channel set up. And a JVC RX-D202B 700 watt 7.1 ch receiver that was refurbished. The total was about $200. Got some discounts using google checkout, I think. All I need now is to build/buy an amp to go with a couple of my woofers that I already got.



Parts Express Dayton 5 speaker home theater set ($88)
Two more Dayton satellite speakers to complete my 7.1 (28.00)
JVC 7.1 Receiver ($89 refurb.)

Take a look at the Denon systems. I have an old Denon in my room and it works great. We also have a 25 yr old Denon amp running the house speaker system and it still works great. It is still better than most units on the market. Through 25 years, all we have had to do is get one of the channels fixed because it broke during a move to Europe.

How does it all sound though? Or have you not yet hooked them up?

You were right to avoid the Z550s as they are pretty much junk Accousticly, since Logitech felt the urge to remove all midrange sound when designing the set.

There are several good reviews which compare them to the Klipsch Pro Media set, which easily out performs the logitechs in every test, Especially when it comes to music since they are full range where the logitechs arent. If you have the oppertunity to hear them both back to back there is no question as to which ones would go home with you.

Personally I use a THX cert Harman Kardon AVR80 amp with Polk Audio RM10 package handling the surround, aswell as an older Cerwin Vega 15' sub.

Thats pretty much my livingroom movie setup, in the bedroom I have an older Teac AGD9100 AC3 amp running a set of JBL Flix 1's and a pair of Fisher ST-828's that still sound great and unload tuns of bass when you feel the urge

Not real sure as to whats out there on the low end of the cash spectrum, but I will say that you will get what you pay for in the speaker world and thats definitly not always a good thing. Most sub $800.00 setups sound pretty bad, but could get you bye so long as you dont compare it to higher grade components.

I think the single most important thing in any system before anything else is quality speakers. Good speakers can really improve a poor amp but there is definitly no way to do the opposite, I say dont skimp speaker wise as a good set is a worth while investment that will serve you well for many years.

If you can find speakers with wood enclosures you will probably never buy plastic shelled ones again, surround sound or otherwise.
The depth of sound between the two is huge with wood giving off a more natural sound that is usually deeper in tone no matter what the source may be.

Something to think about while shopping

Good luck

yes its all about the speakers. I think it takes a minimum of $650-700 to get a good sounding budget HT setup, piecing it together yourself and looking for the best deals. A setup like this will burry any $300-400 HTIB. If I had paid msrp for my latest HT setup I would have shelled out around $1100, but finding the best deals all across the net I redced the price to ~700 and it sounds great.

I've found that Audiogon.com is a great source for quality used equipment, I picked up a Sony ES Preamp, and a pair of Vandersteen 2ci's for less than $500 recently, and can't be more pleased with them. It leans towards the high end stuff, but if you're patient, there are deals out there

Well....considering what my user name is, i should say something. First i will give the meanings to some of the names....

Dolby Digital--Has more compression (less of a difference in loud and soft sounds) than DTS
DTS---Almost no compression at all.
Dolby ProLogic---Has ALOT of compression(same as ProLogicII)

Dolby Digital offers up to 6.1 channel surround, Where as DTS offers up to 7.1 channel. Dolby ProLogic is just the analog three front speakers and one surround. ProLogicII Is almost the same as Dolby Digital but only offers 5.1 channel and is not digital sound.

When it comes to speaker size you have to take into consideration the wattage of the reciever and what your main Surround decoder is(DTS, ProLogic, ect.) If you choose a reciever that is 500w and has both DTS and Dolby Digital you should look for speakers that have a good mid sub, that is about 6" and 120w. Just keep in mind that the smaller the speaker the more powerfull it should be.
In my setup i have a sony STR-DE545 as the reciever, and all of my speakers are 6.5" three-way sony car speakers, and a 450w 12" sony X-plod car sub and amp. I use car speakers in my setup because they have a tighter voice coil, and can hold the acoustic suspention better. I actually prefer to watch movies at my house than in the theatre.
Alltogether i would say i spent about $120. (you would be suprised what you find at the pawn shops and on ebay.

Haven't.....as soon as I'm finished with paintin my wall, and bulding a slimmer computer desk, one with cubbies and a place for my receiver, under my pj (which will hopefully come together soon), than I will put the speakers up. They look like they got some good range. I just need a sub to round them out...

Yeah I'm probably going to go this route as well which is why I am interested. When you do get 'em hooked up, let us know how they sound.

My co-worker just picked up the "Spherex Xbox 5.1" system at $300 CDN at London Drugs. It's 300w RMS system, says they sound amazing. You can hook it up to pretty much anything.. doesn't have to be an xbox.. more info here:

http://www.spherexinc.com/home.aspx

Since this is a DIY site, and many of us are here due to restricted budgets, the Spherex might just "fit the bill" (har har).

I've heard them in the store (Futureshop), which admittedly isn't the best place to test out speakers since it is incredibly noisy. For the price, I guess they are of good value, but I'm hoping to spend about $700-$800 CDN for a receiver/bookshelf speaker combo that will most likely blow the Spherex out of the water (given the price difference, it had better!). I'm a bit of an audio snob so forgive me if I sound er... snobby.

lol, sit me in a room with 500$ speaker system and 1000$ and unless there is a diffrence in volume i wont notice the diffrence (most likely) lol.

I am just looking for an easy/fast/ not too $ option. lol

I built these Tritrix speakers. If you have a little time and the inclination I think they're worth the effort. The parts are available at Parts Express. A finished speaker will cost 60$ to 80$ depending on the configuration you build and how you decide to finish it. These speakers have very clear highend and midrange but suffer a lack of bass due to the small size of the drivers. They are an 8 ohm load which is easy for any amp/receiver to drive. They make a good choice for 5.1 surround sound so long as you have a good subwoofer. I have built 2 of the transmission Line speakers for my front mains and one of the ported ones for the front center channel. I have started on enclosures for the 3 sealed boxes that will finish the set for my 6.1 set up. I also built the sub which was also very easy. I use an Onkyo txsr700 receiver which I bought used on Ebay for about 200$. I'm currently filling in the back 3 speakers with ones I had lying around. Even with this makeshift setup, the room, and particularly the front soundstage sound great! If your enjoying building your projector you might want to consider diying your sound system as well.

Well I think I can eat my words now.

Something I obviously knew while listening to the Spherex speakers in FutureShop was that it was definitely NOT the ideal listening environment to audition these Spherex speakers. The day I posted my above "snob" post, I went to my friend's brother's house and sure enough, he had the spherex speakers setup in his room. So we played some games and movies on them and I was quite impressed. Impressed enough to read some more reviews on them. I went back to FS and they had a few left over for $199 + tax. Very tempting. The boxes have been opened only to remove the 10 Year Warranty Card and to replace it with a 90 Day Warranty Card. I then came upon a thread at redflagdeals.com. These have been discontinued since Klipsch has bought out Spherex (and Athena and company) and have discontinued the SKU# which explains the extreme price drop. These originally retailed for ~$600!

I found this particular post which had them on sale at NCIX.com for $159.98 CDN. However the sale had expired on March 6th... but it was still listed in their database. So I clicked on the link and tried purchasing them, and sure enough, I bought them last night (6 days after their sale ended) for the same price. With the $25 ground shipping in Canada these came to just under $200 which sounds like quite a steal. They aren't without their faults as apparently they are a little buggy (see the redflagdeals thread for more info) but for $200 I get a complete 5.1 system that can sonically outperform any HTIB I've heard so far. Will this be my be-all-end-all HT speaker setup? Of course not. But right now, my wallet is crying and threatening to file abuse charges against me for all the projector stuff I am planning on buying (da-lite high power screen, anyone? ). So until my monetary resources replenish, I think I can definitely live with this.

Thanks, -=Shiver=- for bringing them up.

hey! no problem... my friend bought them from London drugs for $299 uses them for his xbox 360 and says only 30% volume shakes his whole room and sound "amazing" l

now, HOW in the world u get them for 200$ !!! lol ..

Check Out Summary
Subtotal: $299.99
PST(7%): $21.00
GST(6%): $18.00
YOUR TOTAL: $338.99
CAD

On ebay they go for around 500$ !!! hard to find a good deal.

I just clicked on that link and NCIX still has it listed at $159.98. It could be a bug that can work in our favor.

It's $159.98
Plus $25 ground shipping
Plus 6% GST (Unless you live in BC, then you pay both taxes)

Grand total of $196.08 from NCIX.

Dude. I think this is perfect for my parents. They have an LCD TV and DVD player, but they use the crappy internal TV speakers. I haven't been able to talk them into a cheap AVR and speakers, and the cheap HTIBs don't come with optical inputs.
How easy is the system to run? (My dad is 79, mom is 74. Not exactly tech-savvy.)
How long are the rear surround cables? Their video setup guide makes it look like they're pretty long, but I have my doubts. Kind of strange that they use an RCA plug on each end of the speaker wires.

Thanks to Shiver and iPO for bringing it up, and finding a cheap place to buy it. Looks like US$195 will have it to my door.

Parents just had their 53rd anniversary today, this will make a good present, I hope. If not, I can use it in the kid's TV/toy room.

I recall reading that the cables are quite long (30 feet?). I think it will be enough to get a nice clean cable run for my setup.

Wow, I hope it's fairly easy to operate, because that's going to be perfect for the room they have the TV in. I looked here and there, never saw any cable lengths. I'd have to bet that you could make/buy longer if you needed.

I think I'm going to order it now, just in case NCIX changes their mind about the sale price.

Thanks for the heads up!

Better hurry lol, im picking mine locally to save the 25$ lol.

SUBTOTAL: $159.98
PST(7%): $11.20
GST(6%): $9.60
YOUR TOTAL:
All quoted prices are in CANADIAN DOLLARS $180.78

Hope that they honor the price! .................


Order Acceptance Policy

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After you place an order, NCIX.com will determine whether or not to fill the order, and NCIX.com may refuse or limit your order for any reason. By placing your order, you agree to accept all terms and conditions set forth anywhere on this site, including NCIX.com's terms and conditions of sale.

NCIX.com reserves the right to accept, refuse, or limit your order for any reason, including, but not limited to, credit review, the unavailability of a product or errors in the prices and product descriptions posted on this web site. By placing your order, you agree that NCIX.com's total liability, under any legal theory or claim, shall be limited to the purchase price actually paid to NCIX.com for the product giving rise to NCIX.com's liability.

INPUTS: 1 usb, 2 optical inputs, 1 coax, and 1 analog stereo input.

I am planning to use my PC for 5.1 .. hmm. I dont have Optical, any ideas on how to get 5.1 from this?? Or when the USB audio will come out.

*EDIT* .. found the answer I was looking for.
Apparently (with creative sound card) you can just use a 3.5mm mono to rca jack, from ur soundcard to the coaxial cable that is included. After setting DIGITAL/SPDIF enabled on settings and COAX input on the spherex.

Well I am pleased to say that I received my BIG box from NCIX in the mail yesterday. I opened it up and tested out the Spherex speakers hooked up to my xbox and popped in LOTR:TT in Dolby Digital 5.1 and the battle scenes sounded great with the 5.1 setup. I haven't tweaked the settings on these yet, nor was placement optimal, but they sounded very sweet out of the box. I'm happy to have parted with my money for these. A great value if you can find them for $200 CDN.

But back in the box they go until the projector gets finished.

To others contemplating these... if you find them for cheap, just get 'em!

i simple rule of thumb is that 75-80% of your budget should be spent on speakers, now this rule applies to 2 channel with out a subwoofer, so with that in mind it would be closer to around 80-85% on speakers... however if you build the speakers yourself this budget could change quite a bit

i would highly recomend that you buy your receiver used... I have always been very happy with the Harmon Kardon receivers i have owned(i have had several of them ranging from 2 channel 15 watt RMS tube setups to 7.1 Channel high current setups)

currently i am running an 'older' Denon AVR-3300, i paid $75 for it on ebay, it died the same day i got it, smoke came out of it and everything, i sent it back, the guy had it fixed by a Denon authorised service center and he sent it back... however he had lost my remote... he bought a brand new remote for $225 and shipped it over night to me with a brand new back of Energizer batteries...

I would recomend going with any Harmon Kardon, high end Denon or Upper end Onkyo you can get your hands on.

another important thing to remember is that 'watts' is not all its cracked up to be... for instance my old 15 watt per channel HK tube amp sounded amazing, and it was quite loud to boot, better than my little bother's '105 watt' sony...

Yamaha has never really been my favorite but its not bad...

Best Buy's house brand reciever actually sounds pretty good... my mother and grandmother both have one...

as far as 7.1 surround sound goes... dont bother... there are only like 3 dvd that even have this feature... and the list dones not seem to be gorwing any time soon...

HDMI switching is a nice feature to have... a new, cheap Harmon Kardon will have that feature

as far as speakers go avoid best buy's house brand... JBL is my only choice for home theather... thier studio lilne is amazing... they have some of the best sounding tweeters i have ever heard...


your speaker budget should be broken down like so(assuming you are buying everything new):

-35-45% to center channel

-15-20% rear

-30-40% sub

-20-30% front

feel free to call me with any questions(asumming you are in the states)