Home Theater Advice

Hey ya'll,

I'm looking at buying a home theater system before the second game of the season. Any advice on a good fairly inexpensive boxed set? I maybe have a budget of about $400-$500. I'm looking at this Panasonic one right now that's 800W of power with those floor standing supports for the speaker.

The Onkyo HT-S580 has also come highly recommended from people I work with.

I have a Sony that I bought a few years back that has 1000W of power. I love it, but everything that I have ever read about home theater systems pretty much say that just about any reciever will do, but the quality of the system is in the speakers... Any how I would go with Sony I really like there products...

With that budget you should be able to find something pretty decent.

Hell I only spent $125 or so a while back and I'm pretty happy with what I got.

It's nothing special but almost anything is a big improvement over the factory speakers in your TV.

Redskins8588, I've had good experience with Sony in the past. The reason I'm looking for a box set is because one time I tried to piece together a set and no matter HOW big the center channel I bought was, the dialogue was always WAS lower than everything else.

Matty, what kind is yours? I had a cheaper one at $200 a few years ago and it did great. I'm looking for something that's pretty high quality, and if I can get that for $400 that would be awesome.

Mine was a box set also, sorry I forgot to mention that, it came with a 5 disk dvd player also, I bought it in 2002. I agree with matty, you can get decent box sets for like a couple hundred bucks now a days...

I am not sure of how fond you are with wal-mart, but here are some pretty good home theaters in a box that I found...

http://www.walmart.com/search/browse-ng.do?ref=125875.244724+500000.500592&path=0%3A3944%3A133251%3A77622

Off hand I don't remember the brand, probably something cheapie like audiovox or something like that.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the system I want needs to have a real "receiver" with it. Not one you plug directly into the DVD player. I think I'll need optical output because I use that for PS2 and TRUE 5.1 surround sound.

I AM fond of Wal-Mart for some decent box systems. I was there the other day looking at the only one they had that had a standalone receiver. I need one that has AM/FM because I listen to my old high school football games on the radio on Friday.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the system I want needs to have a real "receiver" with it.

Funny, that's the same thing Gibbs told Gardner when he traded him.
Ba-Zing!