"Blipvert" wrote in message

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 15:30:47 -0500, "Arny Krueger"
wrote:


If you're adamant about the $500 figure, the acronym to remember is
"HTIB" or "Home Theater In A Box".


That was something I neglected to mention in my first post... avoiding
HTIB was a high priority- I wanted to give them something that they
could transform into a very nice system down the road- which is why I
started off with the Onkyo A/V receiver. I shun all HTIBs as, believe
it or not, the weakness usually lies in the a/v receiver bundled with
the package, even though the speakers are usually quite bad as well.
They're really not much more than boom boxes with separates, and
they're the bane of the Best Buy/Circuit City market right now.

I've looked at some HTIBs that were as you say, and some that were not. Some
place around $450 the receiver quality seems to be similar to that which you
find with $200 stand-alone products. Most of the sub-$250 HTIB systems are
eyewash.

While going down the separate product route. I'm hesitant about your current
proposal on the grounds that you're spending too much on the electronics,
and therefore not enough on the speakers.

IME there's a lot more audible difference between $200 a pair speakers and
$300 a pair speakers than there is between a $200 surround receiver and a
$300 surround receiver. A $200 surround receiver generally isn't a stumbling
block until you're spending $2500 or more on speakers.