I have had a DVD player for sometime but have not had the surround sound. I am currently saving my money for a house therefore do no want to put a ton of cash into surround sound until I get my house. For that reason I was thinking of purchasing a receiver, speaker combo to get me by until then. Something in the 400-600 dollar range. Does anyone have any opinion on this, what brands are best, which models have DTS and so on? Any help would be appreciated.

I bought a Sony STR-DE835 receiver, and a Sony SA-VE315 speaker package for right around $600 at sears a few months ago. I'm totally happy with it. New models have came out, so I'm not sure what the equivalent numbers are or if they are still in the same price range.

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Josh Hinkle
My DVD's
My CD's

I agree, the 835 is a nice recvr. Could be several years before you even think of up grading this unit. DTS and remote encluded.

As to speakers, there are several, just short of worthless, "packages" out there @ your corner retailer. Snoop out CC or BB and let the price tag guide your purchase.

While these will Produce a surround for your room (getting you by) Might I suggest a different approach?

Demo some speaker systems. JBL, AR, Polk... What ever catches your ears, right?
Your aiming high here at this point because you'll only buy the surrounds right now. When the next bag of money drops on your head, go back and get the matching sub. Then the fronts, then the center...(not necessarily in that order but you get my point?)

Point is you dont wind up with a box of el cheapo speakers that have no quality, ability, or resale value, sitting in the garage of your new home.

Enjoy the shopping, jdb



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Flame suit not required
Peabody Theatre

Check out Kenwoods HTB-503, comes with everything you need to play DD/DTS with your TV/DVD player! All 6 speakers, a great reciever, the VR407, which I have, and its great, 600 watts of power, many inputs, outputs, and digital inputs (4, 2Co.2Op.) and more.

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Normally I would not reccomend a HTIB as a primary system but if you are on a tight budget and are looking for something functional but decent in the short term by all means go for it. However I have listened to several of them including the Kenwood system mentioned above and I would say the best one I found was the Pioneer HTIB. I don't remember the model # but it goes for around $600 and not only sounds good but comes with a neat LCD remote. The Sony one is also pretty good ( I beleive it is called the Dream Theater).

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