Best home theatre ~$1000-$1500

[thatbrynguy]

Thanks for the voice of reason, it is pretty much all a mess now, been holding off for years... like a decade... had decent PCM non-hdmi receiver pushing 5.1 through Jamo bookshelf a but one has blown main driver, and LFE + surround is legacy Pioneer - use its amp just for (weak) sub and micro plastic speakers for surround.
Keen to start anew rather than resurrect Jamos.
Maybe recycle working Jamo for centre.

Aha, fair enough. As the others have said, the Sony is about the best you can do in terms of sound for your dollar from a Home Theatre In a Box. Albeit very bulky.

If you're after something better though, start by spending up to $500 on an amp, and $1000 on a set of good floor standing speakers. If you an stretch your budget another grand get a sub as well. I started my system a while ago with an Onkyo amp, a pair of Dali floor standers and a Dali sub, then later on added Dali Centre and bookshelf surrounds. I'm not saying Dali and Onkyo are the absolute best, not by any means, but for sound quality for the dollar the Dali's are hard to beat. And you have to draw the line somewhere, you can easily spend $60,000+ on floor standers if you have the spare cash. I install home theatres on a daily basis and no HTIB system has even come close. This includes the like of the Yamaha and so on where you get a 5.1 speaker pack for under $1500. If you go this way and you are careful choosing your speakers you're set, good speakers will always be good speakers. HTIB will give you a good few years for your money but won't last in the long run. If you decide to buy amp and speakers separately, just make sure your amp isn't under powering the speakers as this will likely do more damage than anything else. Speakers will not blow when properly run-in and paired with the correct amp.

All depends on how fussy you want to be, if you only plan to listen to the occasional movie, a 5.1 HTIB will be fine, if you enjoy music and you really want clear sound, start with a 2 channel system and expand (I wouldn't use a bookshelf as a centre though) Either way, have a good proper listen to something before you buy it. Any system will go loud, listen for the clarity of the system and have the store play something you're familiar with.

 

[thatbrynguy]

This is what I have

Don't know why it says $1500, I got myn for $1100 or so ,might of even been $1000

I think the system has been changed and now looks like this

For under $1200 I don't think u will find better, some may say to get a Yamaha or what ever, but getting Yamaha or pioneer u won't even come close to getting something like this

iv had heaps of entertainment set ups and this sony stereo really is awesome for the price and I would buy one again tomorrow if I needed a new one

My brother in law has $4000 Yamaha 5.1 set up and said this sounds better when watching movies with the surround sound

If it's the surround that feels lacking in your brother in laws system, it may not be properly setup. It is important that all the speakers levels in a surround are set correctly and you also want the LFE crossover set appropriately for the speakers you are using, set per channel if possible as centre speakers often have a different frequency response to the other 4 channels. Also the Yamaha should bitstream HD audio so it should be set to a direct mode when watching movies, not using any DSP.

 

[PIR4TE]

Thanks for all the responses, muchly appreciated. Was pre-sold on the muteki through above member recos and web reviews however in the flesh boiled down to something between the overall design aesthetic, the sheer number of massive speakers and lack of 3D pass though doesn't suit my installation.
Rompus room or bedroom when I were younger definitely, good powerful sound and massive value.
Still kept with Sony though and bought the STR DN1040 receiver http://m.cnet.com.au/sony-str-dn1040-339345906.htm and a decent centre speaker - DALI ZENSOR VOKAL.
Thanks and Merry Christmas to me!