Home Theater for 10K

First, some questions and thoughts.

1) If she doesn't mind buying used, she could get a 20K system for the 10K she wants to spend.

2) She should take her room size into consideration before deciding on which speakers to buy... Small speakers in a huge room will may not be appropriate. On the other hand, very large speakers are not appropriate for a small room.

3) If she buys 7 speakers instead of 5, the amount to spend for each speaker will be lower given the same budget. Remember that an extra set of speakers will give you better sound effects but 5 higher quality speakers, you will most probably get better overall sound. 5 higher quality speakers will sound better than 7 cheaper speakers. I would stick with 5 speakers.

4) Today, the 7.1 seems to be the way to go but already today, the 10.1 and 10.2 channels are being considered... She should not try to keep up with the market. Remember, spending 5K on 10 speakers will buy you much cheaper speakers compared to spending 5K on 5 speakers.

4) Is her TV progressive scan? If not, is it really worth to spend money on a progressive scan DVD. She may be better off buying a lower quality DVD player and buy a good quality CD player.

5) She should not spend more than 10%-12% of the total purchase in cabling. I would not go crazy on power cables and rear speaker cables. She should try finding a set of interconnects and loudspeaker cables she likes. Once decided of models, she should look on audiogon for a used set... Buying used speaker cables is a good way to save and since there is no electronics involved, it is pretty safe buying used cables (compared to used amps, preamps, CD players) as long as she knows what brand and model she wants beforehand.

6) As far as electronics are involved, it will be much more expensive buying separate preamp, amp and processor than buying a integrated receiver (remember, if you spend 6K-7K on electronics, there is little room for good speakers). On the other hand, buying a single unit makes it hard to upgrade. You have to change the whole unit...

7) Don't spend too much money on the rear speakers (and side speakers if you go this route) since they only give background sound effects. Your 3 front speakers are much more important... Also, try using the same speaker line for your main and center speakers. If you buy different speakers for the center and main, you may end up with deceiving results.

Enough talking, here's the setup I suggest. This is the setup I used to own before I got a 2 way system... It has a retail price of fewer than 10K...

Harman Kardon AVR-8000 Receiver (Retail:$2,800)
Toshiba SD-9200 DVD Player (Retail:$1,500)
Paradigm Studio 100v2 Main Speakers (Retail: $2,400)
Paradigm Studio CC Center Channel (Retail: $550)
Paradigm Studio 60v2 rear speakers (Retail: $1,200) (she can go with Studio 20 instead)
Paradigm Servo-15 Subwoofer (Retail: $1,500)
Cardas Spreaker cable and interconnects (I use crosslink but you can get better ones)

Note: She can get the HK for $1,550 at Agon, the SD-9200 for around $600... If she buys the whole system used, she can probably get this system for 5K...

One more thing, it is possible to get a better used system used for around 10K but if she wants to buy new, I doubt she can find a better package for this price range...

By the way, the Toshiba SD-9200 is a decent player for 2 channel music.

Important: This is just my opinion. Before buying, I went through several system auditions and felt that this package offered the most for my money. I bought the complete system new.

One more thing, try not to overwhelm her with too much information. Giving her too much info may make her shopping a nightmare.

Good luck and keep us posted

Luc

I consider myself a home theater novice, but if I had $10,000 to spend on home theater equipment, I would use at least half of that money to purchase a DLP front projector or used CRT projector AND a high quality screen (I am learning alot about home theater by searching the archives at http://www.avsforum.com).

Your home theater would be "driven" by the large and often film-like picture that these projectors can provide and then be complemented by a moderately priced home theater audio system (e.g. DVD player, AV reciever, satellite / subwoofer speaker system) that probably won't shake the room but can cleanly and UNOBTRUSIVELY reproduce the soundtrack of the movie you are watching.

My preliminary research suggests that there are alot of high quality DLP projectors and used CRT projectors available at street prices from $2000 - $5000 (I personally have found that the reviews and educational articles by Evan Powell at http://www.projectorcentral.com to be very educational and informative).

And that still leaves over $5000 for the audio components. If her system will be dedicated primarily to home theater and not asked to reproduce very high quality 2 channel audio, she should be able to put together a very satisfying system (even new) for that amount of money.

Finally, if your friend is relatively new to audio, I would suggest that she audition a lot of COMPLETE audio systems (I would recommend the same for projector / screen combinations) with source material that she truly enjoys. This will help her define exactly what her audio and video preferences are. Purchasing a complete audio system new from a dealer that she trusts, is informative, and provides fair package deal pricing may actually may actually provide her with more long term "value" because she hopefully won't be quickly drawn into the upgrade cycle that many audiophiles (myself included) found ourselves in when putting together high quality, used components that didnt' synergize well together or really didn't reflect our personal preferences.

Hope this helps!

First, (and I don't mean this in a bad way), women generally enjoy the most elegant (read: easy to use) setup when it comes to electronics. For this reason I'd recommend the Linn Classik DVD, which is a DVD player, processor, preamp, and amp all in one box. Its performance level is EXTREMELY high for such a small box, and it outputs enough power for any HT. These retail for $3000. Only downside: no progressive scan output yet.

For speakers, I'd go with Krix or Totem. Both are beautiful speakers, and Totems new Dreamcatcher surrounds are fantastic with the Linn.

Totem Forest up front, Dreamcatcher Center and Surrounds, and and Adire Audio Rava SE subwoofer (500 bucks through diycable.com...one of the best sub buys on the planet). All this with the Linn would still fall short of the 10K mark, and you could use the rest for decent cables. Cheers!

Brian