Good places to shop for Home Audio products?

[RLiu818]

I am in the market for a new receiver.

Currently i have a rather ghetto setup. I took my old Sony mini audio system (those 3-piece systems with two speakers and one main head unit), and used that as a receiver for my living room setup.

I my tv's audio out connected to my 'receiver' and have two old-ass (10 years old) floor speakers connected to it.

My ghetto receiver also acts as the radio and cd player, and the cd changer on it is about to go so i am going to replace it with a real receiver. And im gonna have to buy a separate cd changer deck too since my old receiver was also a cd changer/player.

Well enough blabbing about my ghetto setup. I want to find out what are good retail stores to shop at for audio components like a receiver and cd changer. Only thing that comes to mind is Best Buy and Circuit City. What other places do you recommend?

PS: i am not an audiophile. just need something cheap but decent to replace my ghetto receiver.

[ToddL]

Best Buy can be good for audio. You can often find better help at a smaller store where you can go in twice and talk to the same guy, actually spend some time learning and testing out what you are looking for.

[wb2mkx]

I am in the market for a new receiver.

Currently i have a rather ghetto setup. I took my old Sony mini audio system (those 3-piece systems with two speakers and one main head unit), and used that as a receiver for my living room setup.

I my tv's audio out connected to my 'receiver' and have two old-ass (10 years old) floor speakers connected to it.

My ghetto receiver also acts as the radio and cd player, and the cd changer on it is about to go so i am going to replace it with a real receiver. And im gonna have to buy a separate cd changer deck too since my old receiver was also a cd changer/player.

Well enough blabbing about my ghetto setup. I want to find out what are good retail stores to shop at for audio components like a receiver and cd changer. Only thing that comes to mind is Best Buy and Circuit City. What other places do you recommend?

PS: i am not an audiophile. just need something cheap but decent to replace my ghetto receiver.

Best Buy seemed to be fine. Note that they carry their own Private Label brand, Insignia, that they try to push because it has better margins than the well known names. I'd like to know who makes Insignia for them. It seemed to be good value for the money. Worth a 30 day trial! I ended up buying a Yamaha HTR-5850.

[Geoffcin]

I am in the market for a new receiver.

Currently i have a rather ghetto setup. I took my old Sony mini audio system (those 3-piece systems with two speakers and one main head unit), and used that as a receiver for my living room setup.

I my tv's audio out connected to my 'receiver' and have two old-ass (10 years old) floor speakers connected to it.

My ghetto receiver also acts as the radio and cd player, and the cd changer on it is about to go so i am going to replace it with a real receiver. And im gonna have to buy a separate cd changer deck too since my old receiver was also a cd changer/player.

Well enough blabbing about my ghetto setup. I want to find out what are good retail stores to shop at for audio components like a receiver and cd changer. Only thing that comes to mind is Best Buy and Circuit City. What other places do you recommend?

PS: i am not an audiophile. just need something cheap but decent to replace my ghetto receiver.

When your CD player goes you can replace it pretty cheaply with a DVD mulit-player that will handle both CD & DVD, and most likely SACD + DVD-Audio too. Pioneer makes a good inexpensive unit. Also, HT receivers have come a long way, and todays $350 receiver can do most of what your going to need perfectly fine. Your going to have to set yourself a budget BEFORE you go out looking or you'll wind up spending a lot more than you wanted to!

[topspeed]

If you're in California, find a Good Guys immediately. They are going out of business and carry better equipment than BB or CC. You might also consider some online retailers such as spearitsound.com or audioadvisor.com. Both run specials all the time and are very reputable.

Good luck.

[Mike Anderson]

My recommendation would be not to shop at ANY walk-in retail store like Good Guys or Best Buy unless you have to. You can get most of the equipment you want online for much, much less than you'll pay for it in those places.

The Good Guys near me is going out of business, so I went to look at what they had just for the heckuvit. I didn't see one piece of equipment I couldn't get online for cheaper, even with the "going out of business" discount.

Even better, buy used. I picked up a killer $1600 amplifier for less than half that. Not a scratch on it, probably sounds every bit as good as it did when it was brand new several years ago.

[VALGOLFS]

I have found Crutchfield catalog/online has a ton of good info and reasonably priced equipment.

[jocko_nc]

Ubid.com has been auctioning off scads of receivers recently, including Denon, Marantz, and Yamaha. Other components also. They must be a large liquidator. I got a Yamaha RXV650 for $ 309.00 there last year.

http://www.ubid.com/cat/get_cat_page...D=3871&PgNum=1

Use a credit card to purchase. Do not expect a hand-holding experience if you need a warranty repair, but if you know what you want, there is no reason you cannot find a sweet deal. I would not buy a high-end component that way. I would consider a $ 300.00 component that I get a couple of years service from a throw-away. Good deal.

jocko