Video Asylum

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RE: Help deciding on a low-end, entry level HTiB?

Posted by Bubba on August 15, 2011 at 21:05:55:
To introduce a very bad analogy, if they cheapest new car you can afford is a Yugo, maybe you're better off buying a used anything.

I stopped at a bunch of yard sales today, and one had a reasonable HTIB system - maybe Panasonic, (it had a wireless link to the rear speakers). The asking price was only about $50.

I'd be more inclined to put all the real money into an HDMI receiver; I think a 5.1 that supports True HD and DTS MA isn't unrealistic (7.1, upscaling, not so likely). Use whatever you can find for speakers; there's often terrific deals at thrift stores and yard sales. While it's obviously best if they match, the truth is that even identical speakers don't sound the same when they're in different locations. Still, it wouldn't be hard to collect 4 or 5 or 7 of a widely available and popular minispeaker like the Radio Shack Minimus 7. A proper AV receiver will have "bass management" and "phantom center" so if you went with 4.0 using full-size speakers, you wouldn't miss any dialogue or bass.