Speaker recommendations for my price range.

[deadlifter]

Hey guys. I'm not at all experience in home theater set up, and I've got a few questions for you. I'm parents are having me buy them a system for $1000, and they really don't want me to go over. So far I have a Pioneer VSX-D912K 6 Channel Home Theater Receiver and a PANASONIC DVD-F85S DVD 5 Disc Player for the dvd player. So I have about $550 to spend on spekers and cables.

This doesn't have to be a perfect system. I just want something that will be pretty impressive. I'm not sure if I should get a complete package like the Polk RM6700TI with the PSW303 sub. Or if I would be better off just buying to stereo speakers and upgrading later. The thing is, I'm leaving next year for college, and I don't know if my parents would ever take the initiative to get more speakers. I wanted them to have surround sound. They also want small speakers, so I should probably stay away from the tower speakers and stick to bookshelf or preferrably sattelite.

So basically I just need some reccomendations for my price range, and whether I should just buy a system already packaged together with 4 sattlites and a center channel, or if I should just get everything piece by piece. (I could probably only afford stereo speakers in this instance)

Sorry I didn't post links to the stuff I already bought, I couldn't figure it out. Thanks for the help. I'll post any more questions I might come across later.

[headknocker]

deadlifter:Have you checked out the Athena line in Best Buy? Their midsize bookshelves sound pretty good and you could also pick up the $125 Dayton powered sub from Parts Express(www.partsexpress.com). I think Athena has a smaller bookshelf too and you could use them as surrounds. Of course, you should go with their center channel which goes for around $180 although you might be able find it a little cheaper. For cables, I think the Dayton Audio cables(again, from Parts Express) offer a great bang for the buck. I highly recommend the 12 gauge OFC SoundKing speaker wire from Parts Express which is often on sale for $29.90 for a 100-foot spool.

[joel2762]

I'm not sure if you have a Future Shop around you. I'm not sure if Future Shop has a webpage not with Canadian prices..Or if you are in Canada...But I have speakers by Quest. Canadian made, High-Quality stuff, veryy good deals. Anyway, Click Here (http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&dept=10&WLBS=fsweb12&sku_id=0665000FS10031011&catid=&newdeptid=10) to see some you might be interested in if you have acess to Future Shop. I got a pair of Quest Q610's (Unfortunatly Not Made Anymore) a few years ago on sale for 99.99 Canadian! Reg 199.99. Then they were available only online for a few months At 89.99!! Now they're gone, but here is one of the new models Quest makes. Also available, a Matching center channel (http://) . 99.99 canadian.

[deadlifter]

Do you think I would be better off using the money I have on two front stereo speakers or a surround sound system?

[Bryan]

Can you take back the receiver and dvd player for refunds at this point in time? If you can, take back the receiver. The Denon AVR-483 goes for $168.06 from 6ave.com. Add the HSU Ventriloquist (http://www.hsustore.com/vt12.html) system for $249 and VTF-2 for $450 and you should be all set.

[headknocker]

deadlifter: What you COULD do right now is concentrate on getting a nice pair of bookshelves and a timbre-matched center channel. IMO, getting the front speakers timbre-matched is much more important than matching rear surrounds. I have my old(but still great-sounding) dbx Soundfield 3x2 sub/sat system as rear surrounds and Aura's LSW-828M's and LSC-537 as mains and CC respectively... and it sounds great! Concentrating your efforts on a nice front stage is very important as that's where you'll be getting around 80-90% of your sound, particularily with DVD's. The rear surrounds ARE important, particularily if you eventually decide to pick up a universal disc player to enjoy DVD-A's and SACD's hi-resolution but for the most part you can skimp a little on the rear surrounds. I don't mean that you should go with the mass-market crap in Best Buy(unless you're going with Athena and Klipsch). I'm only saying that you can go a little cheaper(a smaller nice-quality bookshelf) on the surrounds. Of course, you're gonna need a sub and there are tons of decent powered subs out there. I'm not saying they're great but I've had good luck with my BIC 12" and Dahlquist 15". I got mine from uBid awhile ago but I often see them listed on ebay.