Starting From Scratch what would you do?

[VETMANSHU]

I know just enough to be dangerous so I thought I should start seeking out advice from more knowledgable folks than myself.

I have that rare opportunity to start a system from scratch (almost) and wanted to hear from whomever wishes to offer advice as to what you would buy if you were me.


Here's what I already have:

New construction so all wire have been laid in the walls and are fed to a large but unfinished AV closet under the stairs. Closet is 5 feet tall five feet deep and five feet wide with a 30" door space.

-Speakers: Center, Left and Right JBL HTI 55 Dual 5" LCR in-wall, R+L surround JBL HTI 6C in-ceiling, Kitchen 8" Infinty in-ceilings and patio JBL S36AWII.

-Television is SCEPTRE 46" LCD 1080p

-Klipsch 300/600w powered subwoofer (don't know the model, sorry)

-Have large "closet"under the stairs where all wires meet:
2 RJ coaxial
2 Cat 6
1 fiberoptic
9 speakers
5 for living room surround
2 for kitchen in ceiling Infinity 8"
2 for patio
20amp dedicated circuit breaker

-House has wireless for internet.
-Also, a fairly large hard drive filled with music
-Room is about 20 feet long, 14 feet wide and has 10foot ceilings. Sofa is about 13 feet from the television.

I am looking for advice on receivers. dvd players, remotes, recorders, PC and PC connections and pretty much anything else you can throw into the mix. My budget is about $4,000 or so.

Was looking at Onkyo TS-XR805 or 875 or 905 if that helps any on the advice side of things.

I am not an audiophile so I don't need the absolute best but I would love to have a really nice system that would last for quite a while and that's wife-friendly...if you know what I mean.

Thanks tons for any advice!

VETMANSHU

 

[highfihoney]

The first thing i would do if i were in your shoe's would be to research every (last years model) receiver,find out all the features & power ratings,decide on several models that will fit your needs,then i'd start looking on a daily basis on Ebay,Audiogon & Craigslist for used models.

I would also look at buying a processor from Emotiva & then going over to Audiogon & buying used amplifiers that can be reused in the system 5 years from now when all the features on current model processors & receivers have become obsolete.

The best thing you can ever do is to not get caught up in the thinking that you must buy new,warrenty's on quality gear are way over rated.

 

[j_garcia]

I think that is an excellent suggestion and you likely won't need anything extreme in terms of power to drive the speakers in question. Any decent 7ch amp or a 5ch and a 2ch with impedance matching volume controls or selector should be more than enough to handle those guys. I'd also look at www.outlawaudio.com at the 970 processor.

For sources, I'd pick up a dedicated CD player, and either a combination high def player or one of each and skip a DVD player altogether.