Need Help Picking Out A Home Theater System For Gaming Etc.

[Mike1988_11]

Hi, I need to get a new Home Theater System. It will be used most often for playing music, video games, DVDs, and will also be hooked up to my computer. I am looking for something in the range of $300 to $500. Please help me out! What does everyone else use?

Mike

[SoulBlazer]

Well, I spent big bucks to get a Yahama receiver and a 5.1 speaker system. But I use it for TV and DVD's as well as games. It really depends on what you want it for and what quality you want. There's some good looking gaming systems I've seen for cheap.

[Simply Dave]

I have a Onkyo system very similar to this one:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Onkyo-5-1-Channel-Home-Theater-System--LS-V500C-/sem/rpsm/oid/77950/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do


It's a very good mid-level system.

[Half Japanese]

Like Simply Dave, I went with an Onkyo HTIB, this one:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Onkyo-Home-Theater-System--HTS-770-/sem/rpsm/oid/90794/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

It's a very nice unit with lots of features and pretty good speakers included already. Just remember that with the wiggle room you have left over (assuming you're spending the full $500 you referenced), buy a good surge protector. Also, the cables that come with it are very thin and not all that great, so better cables to wire it with would probably benefit your sound as well.

The inputs on the receiver are fabulous:

2 component
3 AV/S-video
several others as well for audio components (cd player, turntable, etc.)


One thing I've noticed though: If you're buying a HTIB and it has a built-in DVD player stay away. Generally those are junky 'let's lump everything into one box' setups. Also avoid the cheap systems where everything's wired into the sub, that's just goofy (one of the new Samsung's has this, plus it doesn't get very loud).


edit: the current price on the website is wonderful. When I got mine well over 6 months ago, I paid $403 at my employee cost, so the price you'd be getting is a very good one.

[Mike1988_11]

Like Simply Dave, I went with an Onkyo HTIB, this one:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Onkyo-Home-Theater-System--HTS-770-/sem/rpsm/oid/90794/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do



This looks like a pretty good deal, right in my price range. I have a few questions though. First of all, I read a few reviews that had complants on using it for music. How is the sound quality for music? Also, these speakers will be going in my bedroom. Do you think space will be an issue?

Mike