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What's the best brand of home theater equipment to buy?

OR, should I be looking into separate speaker and receiver systems?? Whats your top brands?

6 Answers

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  • 9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Home theater in a box systems are almost all garbage. They often don't allow you to use any other speakers or speaker wires with them. the speakers themselves are almost always cheap and awful.

    The best way to go is to get a proper, name brand home theater audio receiver, and combine it with a good set of speakers, and whatever kind of disc player that you want, like either an upconverting DVD player, which start around $50, or a BluRay player, which starts at around a hundred bucks.

    In receivers, good makes are Harman Kardon, Pioneer, Denon and Yamaha. Sony, frankly, makes lousy receivers and worse speakers. Good speaker makes include Energy, Klipsch, JBL, Infinity and Polk. Avoid Bose, they suck.

    In receivers, you would need to decide if you want to go with a basic 5.1 unit, or if you want to go to 7.1. 7.1 obviously costs more, and you will need seven speakers and a sub, rather than five and a sub.

    Good deals can be found on Amaz*n.com, both on receivers and speakers. A Harman Kardon 2600 7.1 receiver can be had for $375. A Pioneer 521-K 5.1 receiver can be had for $175. A Polk 705 5.1 speaker set can be had for $250. They also have good deals on the accessories that you will need, such as digital optical audio cables (To connect the TV's audio output into the receiver), HDMI cables, and 16 gauge speaker wire and a subwoofer cable.

  • 9 years ago

    ALWAYS go for separate receiver and speakers. You really want a real receiver - not one of those Frankenstein DVD players with speaker ports on the back. They may be cheap but they don't allow extra devices to be connected, meaning if you wanted your game console or cable/satellite TV to use the speakers - you're out of luck.

    Not going with a bundled package isn't a big deal. If you make it clear to the salesperson you're looking for a receiver + speakers, he may be able to cut you a deal. It never hurts to ask especially at the local, independent stores.

    Keep in mind that a good set of speakers should last virtually forever, so don't be afraid to spend a bit of money on them. A receiver on the other hand, will probably end up being replaced in 7-10 years. Buy something that you think will be sufficient for you after that much time, taking into account how many devices you think you might have and how many HDMI ports you'll need, etc.

  • Lance
    Lv 7
    9 years ago

    Separates are almost always better even for entry level products which can be less expensive than HTIB systems sometimes' top brands are Integra; Marantz; Anthem and Denon, you might be better off with an enty level receiver like the Pionner VSX 521 though top speakers are Vienna Acoustics; Sonus Faber: Wilson Audio; Bowers and Wilkins, byt again ytou might be better off with an enty level speaker system like the Energy Take Classic 5.1 or the Boston Acoutstic CS 2310 or other Boston; Energy or Polk Audio speakers....even the entry level systems I mentioned would offer far better sound that a HTIB system...

  • 9 years ago

    Go separate receiver and speaker. Choose a 5.1 package from klipsch, or energy and choose a sony or denon receiver. If you live near a Best Buy check out the Marantz 1402 receiver, it's even better than the sony and denon.

    Good luck!

    Source(s): I love home theaters :)
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  • Anonymous
    9 years ago

    Panasonic is my top brand, try out this below link, It suits you

    http://gadgetsnewsline.com/5/panasonic-unveils-its...

  • 9 years ago

    Sony or Samsung

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