Quote Originally Posted by clomfelder
What would you buy? I'm looking for a surround sound system that is nice for music also.
There are a lot of options in this budget. How big is your room? Do you want 5.1 or 6.1? What are your musical tastes?

I like to keep things in balance. There is no magical formula, but if you buy nice speakers don't get a cheap amp/receiver. For receivers, I just bought a NAD T-743. I haven't even listened to it in my room yet, but will post some thoughts soon. However I did listen to it versus a Yamaha receiver, and felt that it is a better receiver for music than the Yamaha. Both do well for HT. The yamaha's have good reliability, and the NAD had some problems in the past, but that is behind them I believe. They have less bells and whistles, but you will never miss them. I had an integrated amp before this that didn't even have tone controls and I did not miss them at all.

I would budget $500-$700 for the receiver. Maybe close to 1/3 your budget.

For speakers, there are a lot out there. If you want bookshelf design/monitor, the popular ones suggested here are the B&W 601 S3 or 602 S3, matching center speaker too. Also good ones are the PSB Image series, the B25 or 15, I have the Energy C-3 monitors that are still being made and are quite good for the $, Paradigm also makes some popular models but I haven't heard them recently. Less expensive but well reviewed are the Athena line of speakers. Online stores are selling them very inexpensively.

I think the rule of thumb is that if a speaker sounds good with your music, it will be fine for HT. Not necessarily the other way around. A good sub will also help fill out everything, and it doesn't need to match the brand of the other speakers. Try and make the front speakers and the center to match if possible.

There are other brands out there, try and listen to them, and then report back about your findings. If you buy multiple products from 1 store, you might get a price break too. Good luck.