Cool. OK. Thanks for answering my questions. Makes it much easier when we know what you're really after.
Since you do have some time and you're able to plan this out, before we get right into recommending gear, I think it would be really worth your while to do a little more planning before buying - maybe talk with your friends a bit, too, since they might have their own thoughts on some of this stuff.
If the idea is to have a big room - possibly like a basement rec room - and be able to have some loud parties there, one of the things you'll want to consider is coverage. That is to say, if you only have one pair of speakers blasting out the music, anyone who is standing close to the speakers might be going deaf, while people on the far side of the room - or folks upstairs, or in other rooms, etc. - will be hearing something much quieter. Now, sometimes that what you want! Sometimes you want it so that people can move to the far side of the room, or to a different room in the house, and be able to talk. Meanwhile, people who want to dance can just move closer to the speakers and have their hearing damaged
So that would be worth figuring out first. Because if you want more even coverage, you'll want to use a system with more than just two, very high output (loud) speakers. One easy option would be to just have a traditional 7 speaker setup like you would have in a home theater, and then use the "all channels" mode in your A/V Receiver - which is meant for exactly this sort of thing. You'd basically end up with two speakers at the front, two speakers at the back, and two speakers - one on each side wall - and they'd all be playing the same thing in that "all channels" mode, giving you nice, even coverage of sound throughout the entire big room, but none of the speakers would need to be individually so loud that a person standing close to them would be going deaf! If you're more after something like that, then your selection of gear changes a lot!
One other cool thing you could do with the traditional 7 speaker setup and an A/V Receiver is you could make your basement into a theater as well. You could put a huge projection screen down there - there are actually a lot of very good projectors that are cheaper than a big flat screen, and you could have a huge 120" (or bigger or smaller) screen! And you can get really good screens that come on a roller that you can either manually or electrically move up and down. So, for example, you could have a giant screen that rolls down (electric ones are more expensive than manual pull-down ones, obviously
), and when it's just you and your friends, you could watch movies, TV or play games on a MASSIVE screen with full 7 speaker surround sound. And then when you have a party, you can just roll the screen up, put the projector away (or hang the projector on the ceiling for a more permanent installation), put the A/V Receiver into "all channels" mode, and use the exact same speakers for the party, giving you great coverage for the sound that will easily cover the whole room!
So that's one potential way to go. Another would be more of a "whole house" system. There are a few ways to do this:
a) you can get an A/V Receiver that also has "zone" outputs. Many AVRs include a "zone 2". Several include a "zone 2" and a "zone 3". Some even include 4 zones! You could have that theater with 7 speakers and 1 to 4 subwoofers in the basement - huge projection screen down there, and then "all channels" mode for parties - PLUS, the same A/V Receiver (one that has "zones") could also send a signal to other rooms in the house - maybe the kitchen and living room upstairs, for example. The "zone" outputs would require that you have external stereo amps for any of those other "zones", but the point is that you could play the same music in the basement AND upstairs - all at the same time - with speakers in each room! Or you could play one thing downstairs in the big basement room, and have different music playing in the rooms upstairs. Zones give you a lot of flexibility. And each room would have its own speakers. Obviously, that might increase the cost, but it can also mean you don't need to play each individual speaker nearly as loud. Much better coverage
b) you can get a distribution amp. This is just an amp that takes one signal, and then sends it out to a whole bunch of speakers - like 10 or 12 are common. This is a simple way to, again, have a whole bunch of speakers in different rooms of the house all playing the same thing.
That's probably a good place to stop for now
Those ideas might have giving you a lot to consider. I'm thinking a group of friends all living together might not mind a full on theater experience that can also double as a kick arse dance club in the basement though
Nothing like a truly HUGE screen for movies and videogames with full 7.1 surround sound, right?
And it doesn't have to be crazy expensive these days. You can get really good projectors, 1080p and everything, for around $1000 these days. And a huge pull-down screen for under $300. You compare that to just getting a 55" LCD or something. It's no contest!
But if you don't want a theater, there are options to consider, as well. Two super loud speakers? Or 10 or 12 quieter speakers that can still give you better coverage. Huge speakers that can pump out bass all on their own? Or separate the bass and use subwoofers that can do it more efficiently, and allow you to use smaller speakers to handle the mid and treble? Keep the source of the sound all in the basement? Or have "zones" so you can play the same music - or different music - upstairs at the same time?
Budget would obviously go up and down depending on these options. But if you're spreading the cost around, your friends might be really into it. Or they might just want two super loud speakers and nothing else
