Please help me build my HT

[painted_klown]

Hello all.

I have a modest system now that consists of an old Kenwood Dolby digital HTIB system, studio moniters, ps3 "fat", and a cheap t.v.

The receiver is a Kenwood VR-406.

For speakers I am using the speakers that were the originally mains in the box as the surround speakers, the center channel that came with it, the 10" powered sub that came with it, and Alesis monitor one mkII's for my mains (studio monitors).

My television is a Vizio VP244 42" plasma with a 720p native resolution.

I know what you are thinking but I have a total of $675.00 invested in this entire setup. And that is just for the Vizio and ps3. My GF's brother upgraded his HT when he got married and gave me the HTIB. The ps3 I bought for $275.00 from a friend and he had 4 games with it. I also once (several years ago) hooked up a friend by buying him a mixing board and so when he upgraded his studio monitors he gave me the Alesis set, and the Vizio I just bought from a friend to help him out as he needed the money.

Anyway, I have decided that it is time to start working on the audio portion of my setup as it is seriously out dated and I need my Alesis monitors in my home studio so I don't have to keep moving them back and forth, dependant on what I am doing at the moment...

I have been heavily considering getting the Onkyo HT-S9100THX HTIB as it is reasonably priced for a system that decodes HD audio, is a 7.1 system, is THX certified, and it IS an Onkyo...seems almost like a no brainer and a winner to me.

What do you guys think? Should I get that or just go peice by peice starting with the receiver?

Obviously buying seperate components would be better but I have a feeling it would be twice as expensive to build such a system in that price range...perhaps I am mistaken. That is why I decided to ask the experts!!!

Thanks. -Dave