The Ultimate Home Theater for Less

This is how to put together the best home theater system for the money. I challenge anyone to put together a better system for the price. I don't think it can be done.

First we will talk about Televisions. There are hundreds upon hundreds of choices out there. LCD, Plasma, LED, DLP, etc. Now you have all these choices in 3D as well. How can anyone sort through all the madness? Well, focusing on value is the best way to start. If you have a little extra space and you don't necessarily have to hang your TV on a wall, then Mitsubishi DLP is the way to go. You can not get a bigger, clearer picture for the money. A 65 inch 1080p DLP will run about $1200 or less. Its got everything you need too. 3D ready, 4 HDMI connections, 120hrz refresh rate, and an outstanding picture. Like I said before, there are hundreds of choices, and yes there are better TVs, however this is the best for the money.

Now we will talk about home theater receivers. There are hundreds of choices here as well, but again we are talking best value, and that best value option would be an Onkyo TX-SR308 5.1 channel home theater receiver. I have owned one of these for approximately 3 months. The day I wrote this, just to check pricing, I found one on Amazon.com for 197.13. This receiver really does have everything you would want or need. First of all, its an Onkyo. This company does it right on all of their products no matter what the price, $200 or $2000. Here are some specs we can talk about.

First lets talk about the power. This system is rated at 65 watts per channel. I know most shoppers will dismiss this receiver as soon as they see this, but trust me, its more than enough power for the set up I have.

Second, lets talk about HDMI Version 1.4. This means 3D is supported via HDMI connections. Audio Return Channel, this means you connect your TV via HDMI cable and the audio signal from your TV is both sent and received through the same cable. Then you have Deep Color , x.v.Color , LipSync, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio, all are made possible with HDMI version 1.4

You also get

• Universal Port for Single-Cable Connection of Optional Onkyo Dock for iPod or HD Radio Tuner
• Overlaid On-Screen Display (OSD) via HDMI
• Dolby Digital, Dolby 5.1, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and Dolby Prologic II decoder
• Burr-Brown digital audio converter
• 4 DSP Gaming Modes: Rock, Sports, Action, and Role Playing
• Late Night mode to keep explosions and action scenes from getting too loud

All this for under $200, you can't do better than that.

Now lets talk about speakers. Again, remember we are talking about best value here. Just to clarify, I did hours upon hours of research before every single purchase I made, and I purchased everything separately as I could afford it. Now for the front speakers I went with the Sony SS-F6000 floor standing speakers. These have excellent highs, mids, and lows. They can go toe to toe with speakers costing three times as much.
For the Subwoofer I went with the Sony SA-W2500. This powered sub has plenty of bang for your buck. It has an auto on/off feature, adjustable frequency response, and 150 watts max output power. You can pick one of these up for around $80.
Now if you are on a limited budget and have to buy everything as you can afford it like I did, then you may want to buy the bookshelf speakers first and use them for the front left and right until you can afford the floor standing SS-F6000 speakers. The bookshelf speakers I am talking about are the Sony SS-B1000s. You can pick a pair of these up for $50. These bookshelfs are excellent for the rear surround, but will also do just fine for the front left and right until you can get the $200 floor standing SS-F6000s,
As for the center channel I went with the Polk Audio CS10, however I can just as easily recommend the Sony SS-CN5000 if you would rather all your speakers match exactly. The sound quality and price are both very similar. Each boast crisp and clear highs with a powerful midrange that is perfect for voices. They both cost around $80.
Now for the final piece of the puzzle you will need a blue ray player so that you can truly appreciate the high-definition audio and video this system is capable of. For the best value, you can not go wrong with a Sony PS3. Not only is it a great gaming system and blue ray player, it also has a built in 1080p upconverter so that even your old standard definition DVDs are upconverted to 1080p. The PS3 also supports 3D video and is an outstanding HD audio player that streams audio from your PC via built in Wi-fi. You can get a PS3 120GB for $299.

Total Cost:

Mitsubishi 65" DLP 1080p - $1200

Onkyo Receiver - $200

All 6 Speakers - $410

120GB PS3 - $299

Total = $2109

This set up is absolutely the best value you can buy.