I need advice on what to buy for $500

[snowball_iv]

I am finally selling my tv for around 500 bucks. And i know someday i want a new blu-ray player and i want a new reciever, so i can get hi-def sound, and new speakers. I just don't know what i should get next. Any input is great. i wouldn't mind putting another hundred on that if i need to. Thanks

[squirrel101]

since your going to build a system use quality and not entry level speakers....YGM

[Blu-Jedi]

Originally Posted by snowball_iv

I am finally selling my tv for around 500 bucks. And i know someday i want a new blu-ray player and i want a new reciever, so i can get hi-def sound, and new speakers. I just don't know what i should get next. Any input is great. i wouldn't mind putting another hundred on that if i need to. Thanks

As far as a blu-ray player goes, i just retired my panasonic for a playstation 3, though nothing wrong with the panasonic i wanted a little more flexibility.
I along with many others here highly recommend a PS3 for a blu-ray. As far as receiver goes, i have owned yamaha, onkyo and now a pioneer elite sc-05 . I like all three brands , depending on your budget and what features you want. As for what to get first, that's a tough call.

[snowball_iv]

Ya i was playing on getting good speakers, at maybe 1000 or so for the fronts. I was looking really hard into klipsch, but then i got turned on to paradigm, and kinda b&w. But i thought i might hold out til next tax income time to buy the pair and center.

As far as ps3 as blu ray player i heard they don't do upconvert very well, is that true or am i just pulling this out of no where?
My blu ray player now has the capability of only producing dolby true hd, thru hdmi cable, and it can't produce dts hd. The catch is my reciever don't take hdmi audio, it only does hdmi pass thru.

So what should be upgraded first? Blu-ray? Reciever?

[squirrel101]

if your not ready to go speakers then receiver as the player you have should be sufficient, and i think the ps3 does an excellent job of upconverting dvds.

[lojack1976]

I would upgrade the receiver first. That's what I did when I had an Onkyo HTIB. I swapped out the receiver first since the speakers were 8ohm and not proprietary like a lot of other HTIB's from other manufacturers. There was an instant improvement in sound on top of having sound via HDMI. From there I would say swap out the fronts and then the sub. Upgrade the Blu-ray player next and do the surrounds last if you desire to swap those out.

[igotcabada]

+1 on the receiver upgrade. That seems like the most logical choice for you

[snowball_iv]

OK, sounds it looks like i need to upgrade the reciever then. Will i be missing out on much, by not being able to listen to DTS-HD? And i can get a good reciever for bout 5 or 6 hundred? Thanks everyone

[igotcabada]

Originally Posted by snowball_iv

Will i be missing out on much, by not being able to listen to DTS-HD?

Yes HD sound on about 1000 movies.

Why wouldn't you be able to get that?


500-600 could get your an onkyo 606/607 or a yamaha 663 or a Pioneer 1019

edit

just saw your post about your BDP not decoding DTS-HD.... Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that if you buy a receiver that is capable of decoding it, you can get DTS-HD with a BDP that can't

[snowball_iv]

ya normally the reciever can do it, but for some reason everyone was saying on the player forum. That the sony s300 will only send across dolby hd.

[lojack1976]

Yes, that model Blu-ray player doesn't have any DTS HD support. It will only use the core codec. DTS HD support came with the S350, but bitstream only. The new S360 will decode and bitstream.