New member + need a little advice

[cpgrcc]

Hi all, I'm kinda new to home theater and had a few ?'s. I have and old Sony 5.1 reciever with
really crappy speakers that i purchased @ Best Buy about 3 years ago (500$$). It has DD 5.1 and support for DTS. However the subwoofer is a 8inch 50watt system thats on its last breath. Anyways i was looking at a replacement for this system and came upon the Logitech z 5500 computer speakers. This set has a Digital coaxial input (DVD player) and a
digital optical input (Xbox). They are also THX certified and retail for about 300$$. I was planning on getting these but i wondered how these "multi-media speaker system" compare to the home theater speaker systems from the likes of polk, yamaha, ect..... I'm looking to spend no more than 500$. Any comments or advice is appreciated!

[hershon]

Without going into my personal recommendations which people here don't like anyway, I'm going to give you the best piece of advice which you'll probably disregard- save your money because you can not get a decent home theater system including cables, speaker wires & all the other crap (even used) for less than I'm guessing $1200- $1500 & you're only chasing good money after bad. You're best off either not buying anything & saving for a decent system or using your credit card & getting something decent.

[itgbkj]

I agree... save, then get a decent one. a lot of people have sold their old stuff at cheaper prices because they wanted to upgrade. I am speaking from experience. :) Good luck with your purchase... dont' hurry.

[N. Abstentia]

Actually Hershon gives good advice! $500 will barely clear a good subwoofer, so I'd save up and wait.

The Logitechs make fine computer speakers, but not home theater speakers. Once you get more than 2 feet away from them they will become quite crappy sounding.

[jeskibuff]

If your receiver still has no problems and has a decent power output, you might consider going with 3 new speakers: a pair of Ed Frias DIY for the front (approx $330/pr) and the modified version of the BIC center channel. Use two of your current "crappy" speakers as surrounds, as they're not too critical. Just do without the sub if it isn't working properly. You will have some decent speakers to listen to until you can make further upgrades, but don't try to do everything all at once.

Edit: This looks like a decent buy from one of our own members which would duck way under your $500 budget:
http://classifieds.mtbr.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/classifieds.pl?db=Audio&website=AudioReview&language=&session_key=&search_and_display_db_button=on&results_format=long&db_id=11246&query=retrieval

[nick250]

If I were in your shoes I would buy the best 2 speakers I could get for $500. This means aditioning every $500 pair of speakers in your geographical area. I would then move your current two speakers to surround duty. Then as you save money you could add a center speaker and sub woofer as your budget allows.

That is plan one. Plan two is if you just want the real basics for home theater and you want it now. In this case you should check out every Home Theater In A Box in your area that sells for $500 and take it home the one you like the best. Perhaps one of the group members here has some experience with HTIB and will make some recommendations. Also search this forum for HTIB threads. Good luck.

[paul_pci]

Why do you claim that your speakers are crappy? Is this a categorical statement, meaning that you serious.y consider that they produce crappy sound Or do you think that just because they are cheap, they must be crappy but you actually like their sound?

This is an important question because if you conclude that they are categorically crappy, then it makes absolutely no sense to go out and buy another set of crappy sounding speakers. If on the other hand you are somewhat pleased with their performance than just look and around see which new set in your price range sounds best to you.