Who on here has told themselves they wouldn't spend that much money on this and now..

[DIGITALBATH]

I always told myself I wanted the best, budget, yet good quality home theater I could find. Now as I start adding up the totals, it is hard to qualify it as bargain basement cheap; though I know you could always spend more.

I want to hear peoples stories of how, just a little, turned into a LOT. Current equipment I use puts me at about $5000.

[Blown 4.3]

about 1 1/2 years ago, i wanted to "just" upgrade to 5.1, from my trusty yammy pro-logic. so i got a $200 pioneer reciever. worked well enough, i guess.

then, my wife wanted a new tv. so we got her a panny 32" lcd.
well hot damn, i had to have one of those for myself !
while researching/ordering my 32", i came across the mitsu 65" dlp. i said "HMMMM"
i got that. it blew up from there.

[SeanMF]

Pretty sure everything I've done in the past year. Like the bedroom speakers I'm getting I said I would only spend $1000...well the actual ones I'm getting retail for $4500.

[crazyBLUE]

When I first started it was A minimum setup & this was about 2 years & A few months ago . If I were to add everything up that I have bought & bought in upgrades as well , It would be well over 15 K .

[JasonR]

Yeah, pretty sure I said all we need is this $200 HTiB. And now where are we at?

[Steve]

When I went to a "real" system I said all I would ever need was the Onkyo HTiB I bought at the time. I don't have a single component of that system left any more.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by JasonR

Yeah, pretty sure I said all we need is this $200 HTiB. And now where are we at?

I started with that vary same HTIB Jason You still have yours in the man cave don't you ?

[SeanMF]

Originally Posted by Steve

When I went to a "real" system I said all I would ever need was the Onkyo HTiB I bought at the time. I don't have a single component of that system left any more.

Well my first real setup was a Klipsch synergy speakers with my employee discount from best buy. At the time I moved frequently due to being in school so I went with Onkyo htib for couple years and wall mounted lcd. That onkyo htib sounded really good for what it is. Then something overtook me about a year ago.

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by crazyBLUE

I started with that vary same HTIB Jason You still have yours in the man cave don't you ?

You know it! Secondary setup, that the wife uses mostly when working out. Still, home theater in two rooms....just in case.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by SeanMF

Pretty sure everything I've done in the past year. Like the bedroom speakers I'm getting I said I would only spend $1000...well the actual ones I'm getting retail for $4500.

Most of this was done with my stolen credit card...... so this shouldn't count

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

Most of this was done with my stolen credit card...... so this shouldn't count

OMG Why do I not believe you

[Grand Bob]

Originally Posted by DIGITALBATH

I want to hear peoples stories of how, just a little, turned into a LOT. Current equipment I use puts me at about $5000.

I started out with a $500 Penneys MCS system. My total now is well over 25 grand.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by JasonR

You know it! Secondary setup, that the wife uses mostly when working out. Still, home theater in two rooms....just in case.

Nothing like A backup system Although I don't think you need one , You never know

[callas01]

well I don't think I ever said that, of course I don't make it a habit of talking to myself... now I may have said that to my wife.... about once a month now-a-days....


My dad has had his B&W 603s for about 10 yrs, so while I was in college I always wanted his system, so I used to tell myself, once I can buy them I am going to.

When my inlaws bought me the JVC HTiB I was so disapointed, about 6 months later I was at my dads watching a movie(2006, my dad bought a blu-ray player 6 weeks after they came out) and I came home and was like, F-this, I am getting a new system, 2007 was my coming out party for HT. AND I HAVE BEEN UPGRADING EVER SINCE.

Now when my wife and I talk, she just asks, how much, she knows I have a plan and a direction for the future, she lets me do my own thing, she just wants to know what I'm gonna plan on spending. And When.

[DIGITALBATH]

Originally Posted by Grand Bob

I started out with a $500 Penneys MCS system. My total now is well over 25 grand.

Wow! For about 13 years I had the same sub I still have and a sony minisystem that had 5 individual cd's, 2 tape deck, and a radio 2x50 watts. I had two Infinity RS 225 bookshelfs. For Tv's I usually had whatever my roomate at the time had, or early college was a 13inch TV/VCR combo and later on I had a 19" Panasonic. Up until Dec 06 I had a JVC 27" hand me down TV from a buddy. It's not that I didn't want to upgrade, but I either didn't have the money, or it wasn't high on the priority list. Oh, my DVD player was a Pioneer DV-C302D, a 3-dvd changer. I decided in Dec 06 after my left speaker blew out that it was time to change some things.

On Black Friday of 06 I picked up my Klipsch Quintett III and the Sony STRDG500-because it was 6.1. My first real sets of components. I got it all home and decided that I needed a real TV. That's when I picked up a Hitachi 42HDT79. Another trip to the store for speaker wires and stands. I still got some mileage out of the Infinity as my real #6 speaker.

I was fine with this setup, but I felt that my DVD quality was lacking. I was pretty set on buying an Oppo upconverter. My friends told me to get a PS3 instead, I already had a PS2. So in order to do this I sold an extra black leather couch I had on craigslist and traded in my PS2 for a PS3, this was August 07. Then I decided that I really wanted to unlock the capabilities of HDMI 1.3, that led to me picking up the Onkyo TX-SR605 in January 08. Then, since the Onkyo can do 7.1, I needed two towers, enter the Paradigm Monitor 7's. Recently, TV problems lead to the TC54-P54G10 upgrade, and since my Klipsch center was weak, I recently balanced it out with a Paradigm CC-390 and a new TV stand and a budget Bias Light setup from Lowes. I promise that I will not upgrade for a really long time.

[DIGITALBATH]

Originally Posted by callas01

well I don't think I ever said that, of course I don't make it a habit of talking to myself... now I may have said that to my wife.... about once a month now-a-days....


My dad has had his B&W 603s for about 10 yrs, so while I was in college I always wanted his system, so I used to tell myself, once I can buy them I am going to.

When my inlaws bought me the JVC HTiB I was so disapointed, about 6 months later I was at my dads watching a movie(2006, my dad bought a blu-ray player 6 weeks after they came out) and I came home and was like, F-this, I am getting a new system, 2007 was my coming out party for HT. AND I HAVE BEEN UPGRADING EVER SINCE.

Now when my wife and I talk, she just asks, how much, she knows I have a plan and a direction for the future, she lets me do my own thing, she just wants to know what I'm gonna plan on spending. And When.

I can picture you at a Christmas, or Birthday event, where you're supposed to be all excited and grateful, but inside you're disappointed and pissed that they bought you sub par equipment. Like "_____, isn't that what you wanted"

I'm glad you set things straight-whatever happened to that trusty JVC?

[Fors*]

I thought I just wanted a new 1080p TV in January 09'.....if you look at my sig, I bought of all of it since then (I even upgraded some things twice that are not in my sig, like my previous set of Polks)......I have no idea how much I have spent now, but my wallet has run away from me in horror.

[sandman6662]

Originally Posted by Grand Bob

I started out with a $500 Penneys MCS system. My total now is well over 25 grand.

LMAO.... I bought a MCS system back in school when I was a junior, 65 watt rec, Tape deck , turntable and EQ.. & these huge 3 way speakers... This thing rocked the house,, all of my friends were in envy, and all hung out at my place... this was great back in the day , And they said it could'nt get any better ,, were they wrong, Great system... I really miss it.LOL,,

Any way ,I had many more after that all bits and sorts. But my really big system was a kenwood & my 1st klipsch's I bought in Italy while in the US Navy ,, This thing was awsome,,, then came the cd.. that did for me,,

Well got out of the navy then came life ,, one day I said I would have a killer system,,,

i got a job at Philips Electronics , we had an employe's store . had a rag tag system for a year or so ,,, Then BAMMMM , they bought Marantz ,,, I had a heart attack,,, then came the really big system I always dreamed of , almost $16,000 worth,,, Marantz and Klipsch ... What a combo,,, Well they sold Marantz,, then closed the employee store , I was pissed,, the wife was happy..lol.. Any , we built a new house so I sold all of system, and was out of the game for 10 years,, I collected Action figures , had a fun time at that , then I had a guy buy my whole colletion, all I wanted was a new small but nice system again.. So here I come Marantz & Klipsch agian... started at the bottom and I was suppose to be happy ,,, I was,, Till this new Blu Ray thing came along,,, And BAMMMM,, Agian,,, I went crazy , trading ingear and upgrading ,, saving up money and buying something new,, Any ways it has taken me almost 2 years to finally get all of the upgrades to the top of the lins where I wanted to be and around $15,000 later, only one more thing to get, the Marantz SA-8001 cd player , which will be in 3 weeks,,, Oh & I just installed My new Marantz MM-9000 5 channel power amp 2 days ago.... almost done,,, really I am,,, Yes I have completed my dream system.. It's done,,, I swear ,, I pinky swear to the wife , I promise .. Okay you beat it out of me,,, I still want the Klipsch RF-83 towers... I can't help it ,,,But they are the last thing to finish it,, But I won't go there for quite awhile , My life depends on that.....LOL...

[pokefan]

I still think I've done pretty good with my set up. My PS3 got me hooked (which was a birthday present!) and I didn't really want to start with something cheap so I went with a decent set up to begin with and have shopped all the bargain deals I could find. Not counting my TV (which I got cheap on Black Friday anyway) I've spent a total of $1200 on my current set up, this includes my original Sony AVR. Retail my system comes out somewhere around $2500, so I'm extremely happy with what I've got. If we want to throw movies in with that I've spent about $12-1300 on them which we all know could've easily been $2k if they were all bought new.

I was just talking to the wife yesterday about future upgrades and the only thing I see worth buying at this point is a projector set up. I'd like to get new speakers at some point but for a quality upgrade that I'd be happy with I can't see myself getting away with that for under $4-5k and that just won't happen anytime soon. I figure by this time next year I'll get a decent projector and be happy for a long time to come.

[jlafrenz]

Every time I purchase something I tell myself that I am done upgrading and have my system the way I want it. That never happens because I find something else that I want to add and leads to a few other upgrades. It doesn't help that I have more than one setup either.