newbie researching home system

[colek45]

I have a 24' x 24' gameroom, 8' ceiling, want system to drive a 40" tv and stereo, with ability to connect my teen's ipod. Shelf, surround, not sure what to do. Bought an RCA 600 watt surround system in a box from Walmart, stupid idea, I know now, sounds like crap. Don't want to spend a lot on it yet, maybe 5-600? On the forum here, I see suggestions for systems/speakers that don't seem to have much wattage, but would they sound better than the crap I just bought (considering it's listed as 600 watts)? Suggestions highly appreciated.

 

[sholling]

Honestly to do a room that size (4600cuft) justice you'd be looking at $2000 - about $400 receiver, $800+ for 5 speakers, and $800 for a powerful enough subwoofer. But if $600 is all that you can afford then it's all you can afford and I'd try to do a lot better than that RCA. The only "home theater in a box" (HTIB) systems that aren't total junk are from Onkyo and Denon. That's because unlike almost everyone else they use decent receivers in their packages allowing you the opion to upgrade the speakers later. If you're in the US you can buy a factory re-certified Onkyo HT-S7300 for $500 from Accessories For Less. You can always replace the subwoofer with something more capable in the future. A HT-S9400 would be a better fit in that room but it's $1000 and you'd still want a better subwoofer down the road.

The way I would do it is wait for a the next sale on Infinity P363 towers which while too much now often go on sale for less than $200ea online and power them with a $350 factory re-certified Onkyo TX-NR708. Yes it's a budget buster, and yes you have to wait for a sale but it's a setup that will keep you grinning for years. Later you can add the matching center and a great big subwoofer. Build your system a piece at a time as money allows.

 

[timmay8612]

With that budget, one word. Craigslist.

 

[sholling]

If you liked my "bit at a time" idea here is another option. Crutchfield has Infinity P362 towers for $200ea. Sonically these should be about the same as the P363 but the older model P362 have a slightly different finish. Those along with the re-certified TX-NR708 would give you a very credible 2.0 system to build on over the next couple of years for about $750. FWIW 2 of my 3 Onkyo receivers were bought from A4L.

BTW You'll save a bunch of money buying your HDMI cable and such from Monoprice.com instead of the store.

 

[TD-Ent]

I just picked up an Onkyo HT-S7409 for $488 on Amazon. Free shipping even. Looks like it should be a pretty nice setup for the money. For that price range, it looks like Onkyo has the best HTIB setups, especially if you don't need a system with a blue-ray player. Ipod friendly, even has a remote control app you can download to control the system.

 

[lsiberian]

Onkyo speakers aren't very good. You'd be better off with a decent 2.0 setup IMO. 2 great speakers are better than 5 bad ones.

A couple of these
Amazon.com: Energy CF-30 Floorstanding/Tower Speaker (Black), Each: Electronics

with this
Onkyo TX-NR708 7.2-Channel 3-D Ready Network A/V Receiver | Accessories4less

Is a setup one of my friends just got on my advice and it's fantastic. He will have a good upgrade path with the receiver too.