Video Asylum

Posted by Whell (A) on March 18, 2002 at 05:25:28

In Reply to: $3000 budget surround system ideas? posted by Bixby on March 03, 2002 at 10:03:26:

Note: some of the following denote prices for used equipment (*). There are almost no good reasons I can think of for a careful, knowledgable shopper not to consider used equipment, especially amplifiers and speakers. I would probably stay with new or B stock on the digital front end.

HSU Research VF-2 Subwoofer: $400 or less*
Parasound HCA 855A Amp: $475 or less*
Parasound AVC 1800 Tuner/Processor (DD and DTS decoding): $800
Marantz DV 6200 DVD: $400 or less*

This leaves you with about $1000, plus or minus, for speakers. You can probably find the Klipsch Reference Series (RF-3 or RB-5' for front 2 channels) in the used marketplace. The reference series is a great sounding speaker, and an excellent value. It also is very effiecient, so it would be a decent match for the Parasound Amp. I've seen the RF-3's going on Ebay for under $550 for the pair, and the RB-5's under $450. There was even a recent ad on audioreview.com, where an individual was selling the RB-5's and the RC-3 (center channel) for $750 or best offer.

You can probably shop around and find the Parasound processor for a good buy. I owned this unit for a while, and it was wonderful on 2 channel and did a nice job with DVD movies as well.