500$~600$ Budget for my Home Theater.

[Hangedman]

Ok, for this coming Christmas, i wish to get an Audio system, i have none so far and never had any, (total noob here)

I've got a low budget, i'm getting Married in October so, depending on how much gifts i get, the budget might get bigger, but i really don't think so.

Here's what i have...

Samsung LN-T4065F (40" 1080p)
40 gig PS3 (My main media player, from DVD and Blu's to downloaded TV shows transfered via PC... yeah don't have all the good HBO shows here in Quebec)
Illico HD box from Videotron (Explorer 4250)

My eye are on the Samsung HT-as720 so far, it's the right budget, it looks nice, it's Samsung so i don't need a 1000 controllers...

I don't have room for those big stand speakers, the room is medium size but quite filled.

I'm looking for an audio system with clear sound, i'm in an appartment, i don't need something loud, just crystal clear voices, great surround, i really want to hear voices better than now, sometimes i watch a blu-ray and i'm always changing the volume because some scenes are just too loud and they talk so low...

So without linking me some audio system from Amazon (because i'm in Canada and they don't ship here.. or if they do... hold on to your hats, shipping is overcosted!) I'd like you guys to suggest a good audio system for me, or if the As-720 is good enough?

I already appreciate, thx a 1000 times!!!

[PanasonicPlasmaMan]

I myself wanted to buy a home theater in a box when I was first starting out also. But after reading several posts i learned for around the same price not only could i get better sound quality, better product, but the fact that I could change my speakers down the road made it a must get. I bought the Polk Rm6750 for $199.99 (although not the best sound it still good enough for me) and i also purchased the Onkyo 605 for around $250 so for $450 i was sent and the home theater i was looking at was the same price.

That is what i would recommend

Good Luck!

[simplepinoi177]

yeah I was in the same boat as you...same budget and didn't really know how to go about even searching for it. the magic keyword you may be looking for is HIT/Home Theatre in a Box. These come with at least 5.1 speakers and come in a bundle to make it relatively cheap.

If not, you can get some kick a$$ speakers within your budget as I am on the same budget and seemed to have found really good system. Keyword, Onkyo.

hope you get a good one and hope this helps...

[McLaren58]

For around that price range I would definitely go with an Onkyo 605 receiver. Its a good bang for the buck unit that will decode HD audio (even though you shouldn't need it with the PS3). I have notice a lot of retailers are out of stock with these units. The Onkyo 506 is a great unit also and has one more HDMI input and will probably be a little cheaper and newer than the 605.

For a lot of people working on a low budget, I always recommended putting your money into the front 3 speakers and then upgrading the surrounds in the future. This meant purchasing a good center speaker and a pair of floorstanding L+R. Since your limited on room I would go with the Klipsch Quintet II. This will provide you with a good 5 speaker surround setup that should fit nicely. However it does not come with a Subwoofer, but that really isn't needed living in an apartment.

Hope this helps

Whichever setup you choose remember to purchase all your cables from monoprice.com (i hope they ship to canadia). they have excellent quality and even better prices.

EDIT: BTW stay away from Bose!

[Devildog151]

A Co-worker bought one of those H.T.I.B. set ups and asked me if I could come over to set it up. He had a Panasonic set up where the speakers go plugged into the subwoofer and the receiver was also a DVD player. I hooked it up for Him and Invited him over to hear mine. The following week he took his back and asked me for my opinion on a set-up So, I talked him into an Onkyo 605 and a cheap Polk 5.1 package. He's been thanking me ever since. Like I told him "Why spend money on something you know from the moment you hook it up that your gonna want to upgrade". I went almost a year of saving to get my set-up and my wife kept telling me "just go with the cheap set-up" I saved and now I have a set-up that I won't need to upgrade until I buy a house. BTW even in a apartment you still need a subwoofer, just be courteous about it.

[darkpoet25]

Originally Posted by McLaren58

For around that price range I would definitely go with an Onkyo 605 receiver. Its a good bang for the buck unit that will decode HD audio (even though you shouldn't need it with the PS3). I have notice a lot of retailers are out of stock with these units. The Onkyo 506 is a great unit also and has one more HDMI input and will probably be a little cheaper and newer than the 605.

For a lot of people working on a low budget, I always recommended putting your money into the front 3 speakers and then upgrading the surrounds in the future. This meant purchasing a good center speaker and a pair of floorstanding L+R. Since your limited on room I would go with the Klipsch Quintet II. This will provide you with a good 5 speaker surround setup that should fit nicely. However it does not come with a Subwoofer, but that really isn't needed living in an apartment.

Hope this helps

Whichever setup you choose remember to purchase all your cables from monoprice.com (i hope they ship to canadia). they have excellent quality and even better prices.

EDIT: BTW stay away from Bose!

Although the PS3 can't do bistream for surround sound, it can decode HD audio via PCM. That's how I have my setup. HDMI to my onkyo 805 via PCM and I get all HD audio this way. The speakers are all Paradigm and it sounds sweet.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Definately stay away from HTIB's and go the separate receiver, 2 fronts and a center channel setup. The rest can come later.

Being from Canada, it's going to be a lot tougher to find such a setup for the budget you have allocated. A thought here then is to buy "slightly used" and a great place to look is CanuckAudioMart.

Here's a link to a Yamaha RX-V661 receiver for $395 CDN

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/detai..._new_open_box/

And here's link to some Energy fronts & Centre Channel for $160 CDN.

http://www.canuckaudiomart.com/detai..._plus_2_esat2/

Good luck and with a little digging you should be able to get something much better than a HTIB.

[4TA23]

Originally Posted by McLaren58

For around that price range I would definitely go with an Onkyo 605 receiver. Its a good bang for the buck unit that will decode HD audio (even though you shouldn't need it with the PS3). I have notice a lot of retailers are out of stock with these units. The Onkyo 506 is a great unit also and has one more HDMI input and will probably be a little cheaper and newer than the 605.

For a lot of people working on a low budget, I always recommended putting your money into the front 3 speakers and then upgrading the surrounds in the future. This meant purchasing a good center speaker and a pair of floorstanding L+R. Since your limited on room I would go with the Klipsch Quintet II. This will provide you with a good 5 speaker surround setup that should fit nicely. However it does not come with a Subwoofer, but that really isn't needed living in an apartment.

Hope this helps

Whichever setup you choose remember to purchase all your cables from monoprice.com (i hope they ship to canadia). they have excellent quality and even better prices.

EDIT: BTW stay away from Bose!

I agree with the Onkyo 605 choice, great starting out reciver with more power and sound quality than you would expect. STAY AWAY FROM THE HTIB, you are stuck with what you have and can not change down the road unless you replace everything. Onkyo has some set ups with a reciever and a seperate speaker package, my brother did this and said for him it was very nice, but the 605 is an excellent choice especially for the HD sound decoders and then mayber someone on here can recomend a good 5.1 speaker package, I know the Klipsch is a good buy for starting out and Polk may have some decent priced packages.

[Hangedman]

Well i really don't want to buy used, that's for sure. So i could stick with L, R and Center and still get great sound?

Is this any good?

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...gon=&langid=FR

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...gon=&langid=FR

And this is without a Sub... Can i go without a sub? Or you would not recommend it..?

[Driver_King]

Look at the Polk 5.1 system and the Onkyo 606 in my sig. Excellent package for the money.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Originally Posted by Hangedman

Well i really don't want to buy used, that's for sure.

I can understand that and certainly respect your wishes for wanting something new. I did likewise with my setup, but it was an alternative to show what is out there.

It sounds like you're anxious (which we all understand) to get something as quickly as possible. However, if you can wait.......Future Shop and Best Buy always have amazing deals on receivers and speakers on Boxing Day. I've seen speakers going for 60% off. Start checking their websites weekly from here on in and I'm sure you'll come across a a deal to your liking.

[crackinhedz]

Originally Posted by Hangedman

Is this any good?

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...gon=&langid=FR

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/pro...gon=&langid=FR

for your budget I think you would be happy.

...although I would highly recommend a sub down the road. Even if you send the low frequency's to those Polk speakers, they are just to small to handle the bass sufficiently by themselves.

[ricky tee78]

I actually would stay away from a sony receiver.... theres a couple receiver brands i would stay away from, another one is pioneer.

I would go either onkyo or denon, 299-349 price range, like a denon 589, or the onkyo's suggested. I never really like polk speakers, if you ever like to blast music they don't really do the job, but for that price its pretty good. Also down the road you can just upgrade the front speakers/sub to make a huge improvement

[lojack1976]

If you really want to go the budget route you can look at the ONKYO HT-S6100 for $579 free shipping here. Yeah, its a HTIB, but it comes with a great receiver that you won't need to upgrade down the road. Its basically a rebadged 606 and it comes with a 7.1 speaker setup. I've owned an Onkyo HTIB before and for the money it was a great value. Of course I got the upgrade bug and eventually replaced everything, but the receiver in this one is great. Onkyo speakers aren't great, but they are more than sufficient for a starter system, and they will hold you down until you can afford some higher end ones. The suggestion for the Polk speakers and the Onkyo 606 receiver is a good idea too, but I think this one is just as good of an option since I'm pretty sure you will wanna upgrade the speakers in the future with either choice. The Onkyo HTIB option has a much better sub than the Polk setup also.

[McLaren58]

Originally Posted by lojack1976

If you really want to go the budget route you can look at the ONKYO HT-S6100 for $579 free shipping here. Yeah, its a HTIB, but it comes with a great receiver that you won't need to upgrade down the road. Its basically a rebadged 606 and it comes with a 7.1 speaker setup. I've owned an Onkyo HTIB before and for the money it was a great value. Of course I got the upgrade bug and eventually replaced everything, but the receiver in this one is great. Onkyo speakers aren't great, but they are more than sufficient for a starter system, and they will hold you down until you can afford some higher end ones. The suggestion for the Polk speakers and the Onkyo 606 receiver is a good idea too, but I think this one is just as good of an option since I'm pretty sure you will wanna upgrade the speakers in the future with either choice. The Onkyo HTIB option has a much better sub than the Polk setup also.

I agree, that does sound like a good deal for a 7.1 system that can be upgraded in the future. I've never liked the HTiB, but i haven't seen many that offer a receiver as nice as that one.

[Hangedman]

Originally Posted by John72953

I can understand that and certainly respect your wishes for wanting something new. I did likewise with my setup, but it was an alternative to show what is out there.

It sounds like you're anxious (which we all understand) to get something as quickly as possible. However, if you can wait.......Future Shop and Best Buy always have amazing deals on receivers and speakers on Boxing Day. I've seen speakers going for 60% off. Start checking their websites weekly from here on in and I'm sure you'll come across a a deal to your liking.

Yes i am indeed waiting for Boxing day, i do not have the budget right now, don't worry i check future shop and bestbuy everyweek!

[Hangedman]

All i hear is ONKYO, they seem to be the King of Audio, so my choice might end up ONKYO...

Depending on the budget of course... I'm also looking into the Logitech Harmony One... so i want to keep my budget tight

I guess i'll have to wait for the boxing day, i know Centrehifi.com here in Canada is one of the audio Pro's, but they are expensive!

So i should go for sub, right, left, center, and receiver? right? and i can always upgrade after? So it means i could have R,L,C from Sony, and later buy rear speakers from.. let's say Samsung...right?

But i really think ONKYO will feed my receiver needs

*** Oh! one more question.. what do they mean when they say some receiver does video upscaling? I thought receiver were for audio right?

[McLaren58]

If you want to go the 3.1 (L,R,C,sub) route that would be just fine. That way you can put a little more money into those speakers then upgrade the surrounds later. I would recommend upgrading the rear surrounds to the same brand and series as the fronts. If you can fit them in your room i would highly recommend getting floorstanding speakers.

The Receiver will "receive" inputs from every device. Ex: you will plug your audio and video cables from your DVD player, bluray player, xbox, playstation, DVR, etc into your receiver and then one video cable from the receiver to the TV.

I think you would enjoy a setup like this:
Monitor 50s for L + R
Monitor CS1 for the center
Polk PSW10 subwoofer
Onkyo 605/506/606

In the future:
Polk Monitor 40 surrounds

This setup might be a little more than that you would want to spend but you might find a better deal during boxing day.sorry for the amazon link. I just wanted to give you some pics to help decide.

[Devildog151]

Originally Posted by Hangedman

All i hear is ONKYO, they seem to be the King of Audio, so my choice might end up ONKYO...

I really think ONKYO will feed my receiver needs

*** Oh! one more question.. what do they mean when they say some receiver does video upscaling? I thought receiver were for audio right?

Definitely, My Onkyo is my favorite component out of all my A/V equipment. For price/performance Onkyo cannot be touched.

It means you can hookup certain sources of video and it can take an composite signal at 480i and convert it to component video while also deinterlacing and upscaling it to a higher resolution such as 720p.

[McLaren58]

Heres is a little cheaper speakers setup:
Sony SS-F6000 fronts or Sony SSF-5000 fronts
Sony SS-CN5000 center
Sony SS-B1000 Rear surrounds
Sony SA-W2500 subwoofer