Home Theater for $1500

[cain]

I am looking to get a home theater system for $1500 or less. The room the theater system will be in is 15 feet by 19 feet with a 10 ft ceiling. At the current moment I have the television which is a 55 inch Sony LCD and a DVD player that I am looking to upgrade. Any suggestions would be great.

[L.J.]

Depending on how far you plan on taking this, you may want to build slowly. Put the bulk of your money into the speakers. A decent AVR can be had for $300-$400. You could use the remainder of the money on some nice fronts and center, then pickup a sub and surrounds later.

I would suggest finding a mid/high end audio dealer in your area and start auditioning speakers.This will give you a good idea of how far you wanna go with your starting budget. Your local Best Buy may have a Magnolia ministore inside. This could be a nice place to start also.

[GMichael]

There are too many good choices and oppinions for us to give you names of what would be "best" for you. Your best bet is to do what LJ suggested. Go listen to a few speakers ect to decide what sounds best to you. In your price range you can get a fair system. Or you could get a very nice start on a great system. Many people here started out by buying the whole system first just to end up replacing it down the road. This hobby can be addicting that way.
Listen first, buy once?

[basite]

yes, listen first, then think about buying, we started with buying 2 speakers (stereo) then we bought a new receiver then we built up, till surround, this might take longer, yes, but you can also buy better gear.
some things to get you on your way of buying though, there are alot of brands out of there, and the bigger they get, the bigger the chance that they have something in your price category, just don't end up buying a crappy receiver from some mass brand or something, denon surely will have some in your budget, so does yamaha, pioneer, marantz maybe...
things you want to avoid: ending up with sony, ... speakers, or bose speakers, there are far better things out of there for your money. some brands: wharfedale, paradigm, epos, b&w maybe bookshelves, maybe monitor audio, but i'm not sure about that, anyways, go out there listen, make a list post it here with any further questions,

ow yeah, before i forget,
it's very unlikely that this will happen but still, if a dealer tries to sell you things from a brand named "divinci" then immediatly step to another shop, don't buy divinci crap.
and for cabling, if you can, avoid standard cables at all cost, and try not to buy monster stuff. there are alot of things out of there, it's for you to explore them.

Greetings,
Basite.

[jazz nut]

Definitely avoid those HTIB (Home Theater in the Box) packages if you want a nice system. Like everybody suggested, go audition speakers and bring at least a cd and dvd with you.

[SlumpBuster]

Yes, start slow is the standard advice. Build up from a receiver (AVR) with quality pair of bookshelves, add speakers as budget allows. But, that wasn't the question. The question was HT for $1500.

Bam! I give you potent and impressive 7.1 HT for $1500:

JVC digital reciever with HDMI switching and free shipping for $399: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-pJ1Z3nnU8oc/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=10420&I=257RXD412B
Three pairs of Infinity Primus 150s with mounting brackets included for $450:http://www.crutchfield.com/S-pJ1Z3nnU8oc/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=37900&I=108P150

Infinity C25 Center for $125: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-pJ1Z3nnU8oc/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=12100&I=108PC25

12" Titanic for $458 http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=300-762 Admittedly, I put alot of budget here because it will give great viceral impact for movie watching.

That leaves $32 for speaker wire: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=100-021

Stands for you fronts: $29 http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=240-740

and I'm over budget by $20, but you still need the sub cable:http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=181-642

Bam! One mother of an HT that no HTiB will approach for $1500.

[cain]

Thanks guys ,I went to best buy they had a Magnolia ministore inside so i listened to some receivers and speakers. they had some speakers i liked. The name is MIRAGE OMNISAT. What do you think of these speakers. I liked the denon recievers too. What do you guys think about buying online.

[AVMASTER]

the Mirage are omnipolar speakers designed to provide a 360 degree dispersion. It's an aquired taste but if thats' what you like then check out the Mirage Nanosat package---MSRP $800.00. The Denon AVRs are very popular but are limited to authorized dealers only, be it internet or storefront. This applies to Mirage too