Looking for New Home Theater System
 

I'm in the market for a new home theater system. I'm considering one of these three models:

Sony DAVBC150

Sharp HTAT3000DV

RCA RTD500

Unfortunately, finding consumer reviews via Google has proven to be an exercise in futility, so I've come here for help. What can any of you tell me about these systems?

One concern of mine is the RCA system. I don't know what, but my gut keeps telling me that integrating a DVD player with an receiver is a bad idea. Thoughts?

NOTE: I'm going to be buying one of these through my company, and they're the only three that are 1) Within my budget, and 2) Listed in their product catalogue. Please don't suggest looking at any other brands or models. I need input specifically on these three.

Thanks.

The vast majority of the "Home theater in a box" units are pretty bad. You would end up with a far superior setup by purchasing all the components separately. But if youre dead set on getting a HTIB. The Onkyo HT-S770 is one of the better ones available. Onkyo makes really good receivers but like most HTIB units the speakers are the weak point. You can replace the stock speaker wires with some 14 or 12 gauge and that will help somewhat. But some bookshelf Infinity, Athena, Polk or JBLs will blow them out of the water.

I figured as much. Thanks for confirming it.

Thankfully, my company also has a Sony receiver that I can get instead. I've got an RCA home theater system now, but the receiver crapped out on me a year ago. Otherwise, the speakers are still in great shape. I just need a new receiver.

EDIT: I just found out the Sharp unit has been discontinued, which explains I why I've been unable to find a product description on Sharp's web site. Very interesting...

If your looking for a new Receiver the Panasonic XR50 is tough to beat. Especially considering You can pick one up for around $250 shipped. It puts many of the analog units that cost 4x as much to shame.

Thanks again for the advice. I found a Sony STRDE997/B receiver in my company's rewards catalogue, and ordered one yesterday morning. I'm expecting to take delivery later this week.

This will be the first time I get to experience DTS. My old unit was only capable of decoding Dolby Digital. I can't wait to watch LotR with ths thing!

WOOHOO!!

New Question
 

I was just doing some research on how to improve my home theater setup when I realized something about my current speakers.

The four satellites and center speaker have a 6 Ohm impedance and handling power of 30-80W. The subwoofer has a 3 Ohm impedance and handling power of 30-100W.

The Sony receiver that I've ordered is a 840W: 7 x 120 Watts 1 kHz power rating @ 8 ohms.

Now, I'm not an electrician, nor an audiofile, and those numbers are Greek to me. Should I worry, or am I being paranoid?

Simply put, impedance is the electrical resistance of the speakers. The lower the impedance (Ohms) the more juice it will require from the amp.

An amp or receiver will have a given power rating at 8 ohms but at 4 ohms it will be different. Because the 4 ohm speakers are far more demanding.

Your sub probably has its own Amp, so that shouldn't be an issue for it. As for the rest of your speakers. I don't have any experience with that particular receiver but it should be able to handle those speakers without a problem. 6 ohms isn't that bad. If you were trying to drive 5 speakers that were 4 ohms then you might have an issue.

One of the other things to look for when buying speakers is not only impedance but sensitivity. Which is measured in DB, the higher the sensitivity, the easier the speakers will be driven by an amp.

To sorta piggyback off this thead... what's the best price for the Onkyo 770 nowadays?

Circuit City had them for $400 for a while but it seems they have bumped the price back up to $479. Other than that, the cheapest is probably http://www.vanns.com they have them for $469 with free shipping and a free set of speaker stands thrown in.

http://shop3.outpost.com/product/405...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

What do you guys thing?

Thats a great price, but when you put it in your shopping cart it lists the price as $499.

Yeah, looks like it was an error. It now says $499.

I guess I'll go with that. I'll put in my order tonight or tomorrow unless anybody has any last minute deals to share on the 770. :)