New House set up

[nosaints]

Fellas, I'm buying a new house and would like to install a good home audio system. Lets say I have around 1,700 for speakers and reciever what route should I go. I have noticed some good prices on the Infinity Beta speakers. I found the Beta 50s Beta C360
Beta 20s and the Beta ES250 for $1250 shipped. Any others to consider?

Thanks
Jason

[PeruvianSkies]

If you have $1700 I would try and break it down to this:

$700 - receiver
$1000 - speakers

With 1K for speakers it would be best to put most of that into your front 3 and sub, so let's say $500 for left and right, $200 center and $250 sub, use the left for surrounds.

Some places like Axiom have home theater packages to get all of your speakers and will allow you to have some left over to get the receiver. Receiver-wise go with something from Marantz, Pioneer Elite, Denon or similar. DMC-electronics also has a few PSB package deals that are under 1K.

[L.J.]

I just PM'd this to someone who had a budget close to yours. Taken from this thread.

This system should sound great and very close your budget.

Speakers:
Fronts&Surrounds 2 pair = $440
Center $140
Review of the speakers
Your gonna need stands/mounts for the speakers so add that into the total cost.

Sub $470
The sub kits are really easy to put together. I own the 10" and 15". Very excellent subs and they sound great!!!

Receiver $500
Although this Yammy is HDMI 1.1, it is very "future proof". I had a chance to audition this unit and liked it alot. Any receiver with HDMI 1.1 and up or analog multichannel inputs, and can pass 1080p is fine for HD-DVD or Bluray.

[GMichael]

I just PM'd this to someone who had a budget close to yours. Taken from this thread.

This system should sound great and very close your budget.

Speakers:
Fronts&Surrounds 2 pair = $440
Center $140
Review of the speakers
Your gonna need stands/mounts for the speakers so add that into the total cost.

Sub $470
The sub kits are really easy to put together. I own the 10" and 15". Very excellent subs and they sound great!!!

Receiver $500
Although this Yammy is HDMI 1.1, it is very "future proof". I had a chance to audition this unit and liked it alot. Any receiver with HDMI 1.1 and up or analog multichannel inputs, and can pass 1080p is fine for HD-DVD or Bluray.

A'da'way to spread the information around LJ.

[westcott]

I might even be tempted to spend even less on a receiver and more on speakers first go round.

Maybe a Denon AVR-587 and the rest on a 3.1 system. Rear surrounds could always be added later as the budget recovers.

Denon AVR-587

[nosaints]

Anyone have a set of the beta speakers? I also may be able to get my hands on the Klipsch RF82's for a good price. I will try to go to best buy soon and take a listen.

[nightflier]

I've owned the Primus series, and although they are budget speakers, they are no slouches. I presume the Betas would be even better.

Just out of curiosity, would you consider buying used? Second hand, you could probably get a real boost in performance for $1700.

[Luvin Da Blues]

I have a pair of Beta 20's that are bringing up the rear. I had them for my mains for a spell but wanted something more refined. The 20's are a nice R&R speaker since they are a little punchy (pronounced hi bass, low midrange) and sizzled a little bit much at times but are a very competent BS speaker. Heres a link to a authorized OL dealer that has smokin deals.

http://www.theaudiovideosource.com/1BetaSeries.html

When I was upgrading I compared the Beta 50's to the PSB G-Design and found the PSB far outshined the 50's in all aspects and for around the same price.

Although the Betas had a better first impression after listening for a bit it became pretty clear which speaker had more definition, clarity, smoothness and overall better balance.