Good home theater $300-$400?

[peterd]

You need a receiver with an amp to drive the speakers. You can buy a receiver and speakers separately or you can buy a receiver-based home theater bundle. Since you already have a Blu-ray/DVD/CD player in the PS3 you want a home theater bundle that is based on a receiver rather than a player. These are more flexible for expansion should you want to upgrade receiver or speakers in the future and have far more connection options. The Onkyo HT-S3200 is a solid entry-level package, but in my opinion the best thing going right now is this:

http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-RX-V365BL-5-Channel-Theater-Receiver/dp/B002FJ3TYI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246412031&sr=1-7

It's a good set of Polk Audio 5.1 speakers and a solid Yamaha 5.1 receiver for $397.

P.S. You want a 5.1 setup--5 speakers and a subwoofer--because that's the soundtrack on most movies and games.

 

[Sarah]

I am starting to do research on home theaters but I wanted to stop here first to get some opinions. By the way I know relatively nothing about them, so excuse my ignorance. I want to buy some sort of speaker system to hook up to our Sony Bravia HDTV and a Sony Playstation 3 (with blu-ray). My first question is, do I need some sort of receiver or can I plug the speakers directly into the tv or the playstation? Next, I have a budget around $300-$400 can I get a nice system for that price? Finally, for my price range which system would you recommend? By the way we live in an apartment so I don’t need 10 different speakers, I was thinking that 4 would suffice, but then again, like I said I don’t really know what I’m talking about!

Thanks in advance!

 

[peterd]

You need a receiver with an amp to drive the speakers. You can buy a receiver and speakers separately or you can buy a receiver-based home theater bundle. Since you already have a Blu-ray/DVD/CD player in the PS3 you want a home theater bundle that is based on a receiver rather than a player. These are more flexible for expansion should you want to upgrade receiver or speakers in the future and have far more connection options. The Onkyo HT-S3200 is a solid entry-level package, but in my opinion the best thing going right now is this:

http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-RX-V365BL-5-Channel-Theater-Receiver/dp/B002FJ3TYI/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1246412031&sr=1-7

It's a good set of Polk Audio 5.1 speakers and a solid Yamaha 5.1 receiver for $397.

P.S. You want a 5.1 setup--5 speakers and a subwoofer--because that's the soundtrack on most movies and games.

 

[rennikcks]

http://www.onkyousa.com/model.cfm?m=HT-S3200&class=Systems&p=i

I would recommend this system to anyone looking for a great beginner system that sounds good and is well built. Do not buy a cheap Walmart system.....Onkoy is a respected name brand and has great equipment.

 

[Jeremy]

just like when you set out to buy a car, and you're working with a budget. chances are that in order to get a car that meets your needs, and stillget a quaulity product, you'll have to get an older car. Same goes for home audio. They have new systems in your price range, but you'll get what you pay for. Or, you can get used stuff That some other guy payed huge for new and wind up with a good product with sound that will make your efforts all worth it. Dude, for 300 bucks I could put together a pretty impressive system.