home audio...or dorm audio...need help please!

[dystrother]

hello all.

im a college kid livin in a dorm. as of now i have a 15'' Sony Wega LCD Flat panel tv and a harman/kardon DVD 22 player. I want to add a receiver and some speakers but i dont have an extremely large budget. I want to get surround sound and have it be pretty classy. I was looking at the Onkyo TX-SR503 and thats about the price i want to spend on a receiver but I really havent got a specific idea on what I want. I liked that one because it got good reviews here at audioreview.com. I want to get speakers, not too small and not too big. I was looking at the Fluance SX-THB(?) and they looked too big and little too expensive. any replies are much appreciated. Thanks

-dystrother

[L.J.]

hello all.

im a college kid livin in a dorm. as of now i have a 15'' Sony Wega LCD Flat panel tv and a harman/kardon DVD 22 player. I want to add a receiver and some speakers but i dont have an extremely large budget. I want to get surround sound and have it be pretty classy. I was looking at the Onkyo TX-SR503 and thats about the price i want to spend on a receiver but I really havent got a specific idea on what I want. I liked that one because it got good reviews here at audioreview.com. I want to get speakers, not too small and not too big. I was looking at the Fluance SX-THB(?) and they looked too big and little too expensive. any replies are much appreciated. Thanks

-dystrother

Sounds like your off to a good start. You can also look into Yamaha, pioneer, HK and Marantz. Good things have been said about the Pioneer 815 and it seems to offer alot of bang for the buck.

How much of a budget are you working with total, for speakers and recv?

[luvs2jam60]

I would definitely recomment the Pioneer 815. I too am in a dorm room, and I'm telling you now that you're never gonna be satisfied with your HT setup because you don't have a lot to deal with furniture wise. The 815 is nice cause if you do go HT route it has an automatic speaker setup mic that comes with it. Also, enjoy the acoustics, cause once you get out of the dorms those are gonna go downhill too. And don't worry about getting crazy with big floorstandings. I have 6 1/2" bookshelfs as my fronts and they are more than enough.

[dystrother]

How much of a budget are you working with total, for speakers and recv?

around 500, but hopefully less, 450 i guess

[L.J.]

around 500, but hopefully less, 450 i guess

Not much to work with on your budget. The problem with trying to get a surround system with your budget is gonna be the quality. The speakers are gonna be the weakest link by far.

Perhaps you could look into two nice bookshelves for the time being or perhaps you can go with used, cheap speakers until you can build a little bit more money.

If you spend about $200 on a recv, that's gonna leave about $300 for speakers. Try to listen to as many speakers in that price range as posiible and go from there, you may even want to consider going used.

If you do decide to go with a HTIB, as long as you know what your getting and you don't mind than that's your choice.

[dystrother]

any particular brands that are good but cheap?

[L.J.]

any particular brands that are good but cheap?

I have not heard them myself, but many here suggest Athena as having great bang for the buck. You can also look into Infinity or Polk. Try to stay away from do it all companies such as Sony or JVC when choosing speakers, as the quality will not be all that great. i had some Sony's awhile back and my Energy's blew them out the water. I didn't realize what I was missing until I upgraded. Some other speakers to look at are Energy, Paradigm, Klipsch, Boston, Mirage......way to many to list. If you have a mid/high end speaker dealer in your area you can always drop in and peep out some of their speakers. Also if your local Best Buy has a Magnolia ministore inside it, you can start there. Make sure you're able to listen to the speakers before purchasing and go with a company with an excellent return policy.

[dystrother]

thanks a lot.