Newbie requires help choosing eqipment for home theater setup

Hi All,

I want to setup a home theater system at my new home.

I don't wanna spend a lot of cash at once hence I wanna do it in phases.

Right now I am looking to buy a receiver and front speakers.

My primary use for the same in the order of importance would be:

Listing to music
Watching movies
Playing video games

I am looking to spend 1000-1500K initially and would upgrade to rear speakers in 2010.

Any suggestions on what equipment to buy would be greatly appreciated.

PS: Are floor standing features better than bookshelf speakers?

Thats a good budget to start with for a receiver and front speakers. There are a lot of choices. Consider an Onkyo TX SR 606 or 806 and consider some of these speakers.

Monitor Audio RS6's, RS8's, PSB Image 65's at check out www.saturdayaudio.com be sure to call on the sale prices, they are usually marked a few hundred dollars.

For book shelfs I like the NHT Classic 3's.

You have many options for speakers. I'm sure others will chime in.

wild_fire1979:

Yes that is a good budget to start with for a receiver and two speakers. To answer your P.S. question first, yes floorstanders are the way to go over the long term if your room is medium to large, say in the 2400 FT3 area and larger (just my opinion). Floorstanders give you more overall output (in simple terms) to fill the room (not to discount some fantastic standmout unts out there). They give you more overall soundstage, fullness, depth, etc. A decent pair of 2-1/2 way floor standers are going to be in the $1100.00 area new for the pair (i.e. B&W 684's). That leaves $400.00 for the receiver. That's not going to get you much. So forget floorstanders for now.

You should probably spend approx $800.00 on the receiver and then $700.00 on a solid pair of bookshelf speakers with stands. The B&W 685's are in the $650.00/pr area plus about $100.00 for the stands. Great reviews on the 685's by the way. If you can place them on actual bookshelves, you can save $$ on the stands.

That leaves about $700.00 or so for the receiver. The Marantz SR5003 AVR lists for $799.00 but you can probably get a dealer to discount it for you especially if you're buying the speakers from them as well. So in my humble opinon, Marantz and B&W is a great combination. You can't go wrong. Other AVR brands to consider include Onkyo, Integra, Outlaw Audio, NAD, etc.

How large is your room (LxWxH)?

Go with this Onkyo receiver http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...specifications

Or this one- http://www.amazon.com/Onkyo-TX-SR806...=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Both are very good receivers and will leave you enough to buy some nice speakers. I don't think that there is much difference in sound between receivers in the $500-800 price range. I would rather spend a little less on the receiver and buy a nice pair of speakers. These receivers have preamp outs so if you ever want to upgrade to a separate power amp you could do so later and use the receiver as a preamp. I would recommend spending the money on the speakers you prefer because they are going to be more expensive to replace at a later date if your not happy with them. Plus they will give you a bigger improvement in sound over cheaper speakers. I would also not skimp on a CD player, they are NOT CREATED EQUAL and can have a big impact in the sound quality, more so that a sub $1,000 receiver.

There is a big difference in sound between a pair of B&W 685 bookshelfs and a pair of the 683 and even the 684 Towers. Plus, you would need to spend about $100-150 for a decent set of speaker stands with bookshelfs.

Hey Guys!!

Thanks for the tips. I have decided to go with B&W 684s coupled with Onkyo TX-SR806 :)

I have a great collection of Rock CDs. What CD player would you suggest for this system?

Also does anyone know if Onkyo would support a stereo mode to enjoy music?

Should be a good combination, but I would not limit yourself to just B&W. It may not be your cup of tea (or maybe it is). You really need to listen to the speakers as they can be very different.

A nice CD player is the Marantz CD5001 which some around here pointed me to. I think a new version the CD5003 is coming out (or is out already?). It is a good player, and to me sounds very nice with equipment priced similarly to what you are buying. It is probably $250-$300 new. There are better players out there, but not sure if it makes sense given your budget (and mine as well). Perhaps others have a different opinion about this.

Any AV receiver will support stereo mode for 2 channel listening.

that's a nice receiver/speaker choice, making me jealous lol...you should be very happy with those