Any home theater experts out there?

[IanB]

x2 on what everyone has mentioned on Yamaha receivers, love mine.

x6.022x10^22 on Definitive speakers. You have heard my sound system haven't you? And they were chosen to be discreet, you don't need big speakers anymore (I do miss my Cerwiin Vegas w/ 18" woofers though).

The real thing I have to add to this is don't be afraid to take stuff back. Don't buy stuff you can't return, you need to hook the different components up and try them. If something doesn't work, take it back and try another.

I designed mine for movies, so I set up each system and played the same movie and checked it out. I think I went through 5 sets of speakers and 3 amps before I found something I loved.

 

[RockRunner]

IanB makes a great point, buy stuff you can take back. I used to buy my stuff at Sound Hounds or one of the other "used" places, the high end ones. Also the place on Pearl st. ( can't remember the name of hand) They would let you take home stuff, try it out and then buy it or return it. You could also upgrade within a year and get all your money you spend back to use on a better piece of equipment.

It really comes down to your budget, without a number it is very hard to say what to get. Under a $1000 get Yamaha, under $2000 get Denon seperates or Yamaha hig end. After that choices are numerous, it all depends on the budget!!!!!

Good luck and let us know what you get!!!!!!

 

[Rezarf]

Well, I landed a Denon 1507 today on Ebay. It does everything I wanted it to do and is only around a year old.

It is a 7.1 surround sound thingy. The receiver's onboard surround processing includes Dolby Digital Surround EX, DTS 6.1, and Dolby Pro Logic IIx (for cinema, music, and games).

Specs:
75 watts x 7 channels
Analog Devices Melody 100 32 bit floating point DSP processing
7.1 channel analog EXT input for HD audio sources
3 Component video inputs
24bit/192kHz A/D
Dedicated iPod port for use with optional ASD-1R Denon D-dock
Variable low/high-pass crossover
Dual Zone Listening.

All for the grand Ebay total price of $87.12, man you gotta love Ebay.

Thanks for the tips, after reading the posts here, it is fun to see some experts come to the surface. I am a beginer, thanks for the help!

Now to run wires...

Drew