!!!Help With Sound System!!!
 

Hey everybody. I have a friend who needs help with purchasing a home theater receiver and speakers. I figure an Onkyo is good for the receiver (I own the Onkyo TX-SR501 myself and love it). But I'm not sure what kind of power his system needs for the living room. He has a LARGE living room. It is roughly 19 x 22 with cathedral ceilings approx 10-16' high at the center. He wants to have his TV, VCR, DVD player, CD player, and turntable connected to it.
And I'm a novice at giving speaker advice. He's looking for bookshelf speakers for the front with kind of a wood look to them. I wouldn't know what kind would be good but inexpensive. He has about $600 to spend on the receiver and speakers. I've always trusted the DVD Talker's advice with my computer and a bunch of other stuff so I hope you guys can help me out again. Thanks a bunch.

I guess I could say GOOD LUCK with getting a good speaker/receiver for around $600. I suppose he could get the Onkyo 6.1 system for around $400. I'm not well versed in speakers either....I have JBL's and they sound pretty darn good....but his room is a bit bigger than mine.

Try this place to look: GREAT SERVICE

http://ww3.onecall.com/PID_27031.htm

The Onkyo 770 HTiB system is often one of the highest rated in the price range.

Many receivers in that price range won't have a phono input for the turntable anymore.

I don't know exactly how well my following suggestions would fill up his large room, but for $600, this is what I usually recommend as a possible alternative to the Onkyo 770:

Onkyo TX-SR502 Refurb ~ $172 shipped
-
Dayton 10" 100 Watt Powered Subwoofer - $124.88 plus shipping
-
Fluance SX-HTB - $259.99 plus shipping
or
Fluance SX-HTB - $299 FREE Shipping

Also check out www.fluance.com for their other speakers.

I'm not sure if you can hook up a turn table to the Onkyo 502. And, I know that the Fluance speakers I mentioned have towers, but it's the best bang-for-the-buck package I think of in the $600 range.

I have this exact same combo and I've been pretty happy with it so far. They're entry level, but that's all I need right now and they get the job done. Quick note on the SX-HTB finish: the beech wood finish on the speakers is actually darker than it is in the pictures they provide. If you want, I can post a pic of mine so that you can have a better idea of what the finish is like.

Good luck!

My friend is all for the Onkyo TX-SR602B (refurbished). It's got a little more kick than mine. They have an adapter for the turntable out there since there's no phono so that isn't an issue. But I guess his wife is giving him trouble about tower speakers. She doesn't even want any speakers at all. So their compromise is that he goes with the bookshelf ones. Ah, the joys of being married. There's a reason I'm still single.

The Onkyo 770 would probably be your friend's best bet, then. WAF is something I'm glad I don't have to deal with yet. :D The best deal I've seen on the 770 is at vanns.com.

http://www.vanns.com/shop/servlet/it...ures/502499683

I believe they throw in a free pair of speaker stands, as well as free shipping.

Another (slightly more expensive option) would be the HSU Ventriloquist VT-12 . I personally have no experience with it, but I've heard lots of good things about it and HSU is a highly regarded brand in the HT community. The current deal on their site has the 5 speaker set for $199 when you buy a sub. So, your friend could buy the VT-12 for $199 plus $299 for the STF-1 sub. I'm guessing that the Onkyo 602 refurb will probably cost around $250-275 (?) so it does put your friend a little over budget, so perhaps he should just go with the 770.