Home Theatre Help !!

[TriggrHappy]

Hey guys whats up, my dad and stepmom are building a new house and we are going to put a home theatre in the basement. The room is 15x15 and the cash limit they told me for everything (speakers, projector, amplifier) is $3000. I dont know much about Home Theatre, but I do know i love Polk Audio stuff, I was wondering if anyone could help me on on selecting the equipment with that sort of price range. A 5.1 sound setup is perfectly fine, we arent looking to break any records or impress anyone, a nice home theatre to watch movies is all we want. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks, Steve

[paul_pci]

Hey guys whats up, my dad and stepmom are building a new house and we are going to put a home theatre in the basement. The room is 15x15 and the cash limit they told me for everything (speakers, projector, amplifier) is $3000. I dont know much about Home Theatre, but I do know i love Polk Audio stuff, I was wondering if anyone could help me on on selecting the equipment with that sort of price range. A 5.1 sound setup is perfectly fine, we arent looking to break any records or impress anyone, a nice home theatre to watch movies is all we want. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks, Steve

I'll start you out with the party line response. You'll probably want to look at home theater reciever between $500-$700, namely Yamaha, Harmon Kardon, Denon, and Onkyo. You'll probably want to spend the bulk of your budget on quality speakers, but trying to fit a receiver, speakers AND a projector all for $3000 can be a tricky task. Others on this board recommend putting the system together bit by bit so as not to sacrafice quality for key components with an all-at-once purchase.

Good luck.

[TriggrHappy]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I have been searching around and found the Harman Kardon AVR 520, a 5.1 reciever which is quite pricy, but seems to have good reviews about it and is a good company. I have found it for $899, im sure it can be found cheaper if I searched some more I also found the Harmon Kardon AVR-335 which can be found for about $500 or so. Whata ya think of that ? :)

[mattldm]

Try Marantz or Denon. I have one of each and they both sound great for movies and music.
The Denon AVR-2105 or the Marantz SR5500 would be a good place to start looking. Both list for $650, but can be had for much less online.
Good luck

[TriggrHappy]

Thanks guys, im really a NOOB to all this home theatre stuff. i know 3000k isant much for everything i listed in the beginning of this post but any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[Woochifer]

Actually, the basic components for my system together cost not much more than $3,000. Of course, I already had a TV, so the budget went to the speakers, receiver, and DVD player. Overall, my system cost about $3,300 (not including accessories and furniture) and that cost was spread out over two years because I added to my system incrementally. If you find that what you want costs more than your budget, you can always add on gradually.

http://gallery.audioreview.com/showphoto.php?photo=16&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

Polk makes solid speakers, but there are plenty of other companies out there that might make something more akin to your preferences. I would suggest that you visit a local audio store. They typically carry more specialized brands such as Paradigm, B&W, PSB, Dynaudio, Magnepan, Martin Logan, Totem, Vandersteen, KEF, Gallo Acoustics, Mirage, and Monitor Audio. That should give you a better idea of what the higher end home theater setups are capable of. Unlike Polk, most of those brands that I listed are not sold through big box chain stores.

[TriggrHappy]

Yeah I understand, thanks alot for the suggestion ill be sure ot check into all of them and see whats up, after all i do wana make the right choices ;)