I have a Sony Vrabia TV, and am looking in the $150 price range. I live in an apartment, so I don't really want to shake the walls off, but I want a clear picture and sound with a bit of bass when I need it. What would be a couple of good options for this TV?
Well - apartments and bass tend to not mix. Bass is an explosion of sound in the room that will rattle the walls.
Your price is also way to low for a 5.1 sound system that includes 5 speakers, some type of decoder/amp and a subwoofer.
For a simple install, you might look at a Sound Bar. Go to Best Buy and see what they have. Just make sure to ask to see sound-bars that have a Optical input. The cheap ones only have a left/right analog output which I dont think your TV has.
Sure - you can find some Logitech computer speakers (designed for 1 person at a desk) and crank them up to fill your room. Just be ready to re-buy each year when you burn them out.
My advice: save your money until you can buy a budget-but-decent system with a full-sized AV receiver.
Go to amazon and search for "Onkyo Home Theater" to find a variety of box systems that will work.
Those home theater in a box are not a very good system. They are not flexible for adding anything to them or for up grading. When one item fails in the system you have to replace the whole system. Beside that with your budget in mind you are not going to get good clean sound. Keep in mind, you get what you pay for. I would not recommend any of those system at all. The only system that is worth the money is the Onkyo HT-S3500, it is a 5.1 receiver and a set of speakers for $299 at Fry's Electronic and you add a Panasonic blu ray disc player model BD-75 for another $70 and you have a nice dependable system. Hope this will help you out.
It will very tough to find something in your price range. Either wait and save more money or buy components one at a time. First buy the bluray player. That alone will use up most of your budget. Then save some more money and buy a good quality soundbar. Soundbars will give you good audio but not loud enough to annoy the neighbors