HOME THEATER RECOMMENDATION?
I want to get Mike a home theater system for Christmas this year. I don't know much about them, but can't spen more then $200.00, and I don't need a dvd player with it, just the receiver ans speakers. I kinda like the looks of the panasonic SC-HT05 and SC-HT40, but again, I don't know much about these. Anyone reasonably knowledgable about home theater systems that can give me some advice? |
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| Here's a good site that has reviews on audio systems:
www.audioreview.com I think you're going to be hard pressed to find anything decent for $200. A lot of places like Best Buy or Circuit City sell those home theaters in a box but I don't know if those are even that cheap. This is going to come out sounding worse than I mean it, but does he care if it's crappy? I know some guys take that stuff much more seriously than others. If he does, you might be better off buying a much better system piece by piece, although it really isn't as fun for a gift. |
| Best Buy will be having an early bird special this Friday on a Pioneer 5.1 Channel Home Theater System that is normally $300 and it will only be $199.
Just an idea. batonrougesheepies |
We have a Sony, but I believed Billy spent over $600 on it 
Men and their toys  |
| Good luck finding something!!
I can't imagine if my husband asked for one. There's enough noise in this house.  |
| You are going to have a hard time finding a real quality system for 200 bucks. There are good systems out there but not, OMG that's incredible sound, type systems.
I think that you could build a better system yourself than the Panasonic home theater line. They have single pieces that are alright but once you start to look at their full systems, yuck! We actually bought a system for our house because of the cabinet color. (I know!!! I own a sound company and we bought a system based on color. ) It ended up being a great system that was pretty cheap. I did look it up but apparently so many people have found out about it that the price went up astronomically.
Check out this link: http://www.crutchfield.com/S-gd8mOQabU5 ... ng+systems The first 3 systems should be right around your price point and are decent systems. I would look into the Onkyo system. When they do that price slashing it is actually a pretty steep drop so you may luck out with money. If none of those seem to work, make sure that you get something that has at least DTS capabilities. That is the curve at this point. It will expand again after Christmas but for now, that's what you want to look for. Size of speakers also doesn't matter. 
I'll poke around some more and see what else I can find. There may be some good deals around this time of year. |
| And one more thing.
NO BOSE!!!!!!! They absolutely suck!!! That whole big sound thing they talk about is all mid range sound. You won't get nearly the intense low end, intense, shaking sound and you'll loose all of the high pitched, bird like noises that make a movie experience really intense. The industry saying is, "No highs, no lows, must be Bose". Yuck, yuck, yuck!!!!! |
| I have Yamaha and it works great. Make sure that there are the right number of connectors on the back for all the stuff you want to attach (cable box, dvd, vcr? etc). I've had problems with Sony and Bose because they didn't have enough hookups. |
| This is all so confusing! I really just want a basic surround sound system.
We don't really NEED earth shattering movie quality sound. Honestly, I just want something better then what we have now, which is the TV speakers. I want to start with something basic, and move up when we have the funds for something fabulous. We have so many movies and video games, it'd be nice to have the surround sound system to be able to hear them properly with! Especially when you have to keep going up and down with the volume on some DVDs because the sound is supposed to be coming out of channels you don't have! That's so annoying.
thaks for the links everyone. i'll check those out and see what I find. |
| The thing is that you can get a nice system for that money, just not a woohoo worthy system. The thing that worries me is that you'll end up with a really awful system by limiting yourself to the super cheap systems. You can end up with a nice system if you widen your horizons. Those Onkyo systems are nice and seem to be in your budget. Just don't go to Target or KMart and get the Panasonic stuff because it's a recognizeable name. They're akin to generic systems and you might as well go and get an Al's stereo, stereo system. It'll sound like it's coming out of a single tape player speaker!
If you want to go and listen to systems, go to Circuit City, turn their stuff up really loud, ask the guy in the aisle some questions about options and then check out those model numbers on the net. Some of the professional sound distributors will have those models or similar systems for close out prices because the new 'model year' stuff will be coming in in a few months. Don't limit yourself due to your price, get the best deal for your money!!! |
| One last question...
I've noticed that most of the system decode dts and dolby digital sound. Does that mean I can't listen to my discs with THX soundtracks, such as my Star Wars DVDs? |
| OH NO!!!! THX works great on a DTS system! You may want to do the THX setup on your system before you watch the disc. It has a specific way of sending sounds to the speakers and it's a bit of a different set up than 'normal' recording. It has a step by step menu so no worries about that. You also don't have to worry about your regular set up, it's done pretty much by ear and distance.
If you get stuck, I'll be right over to help. |
| Sure! Come on over, you can be my shopping buddy!
Thanks for the info. I'll try to remember to let everyone know what I end up with, and how he likes it! |
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