Jessica: If $400 or so isn't out of your budget, the internet seems to be in agreement that the Onkyo S770 Home Theater in a Box is about the best deal for your money. It has the best combination of receiver abilities and speaker quality in that price range, and is a 6.1 system. Features include a normal receiver, not some scary combined DVD player/Reciever thingy, component video switching (so if you have, say, an HDTV tuner and a DVD Player, you can run them both through your receiver to a single high-quality input on your modern TV, and switch the video with the same button as the audio - may not be useful for you now, but might be good in the future), all the decoding things, et cetera.

If you're willing to go up to $800-$900, you can build your own 5.1 system that would sound better. But below that price range, that HTiB is quite nice, and probably easier.

Signed,
Been Doing FAR Too much research into home theaters lately and has decided on a system that will probably be $1400 for the speakers and receiver

ETA: Cnet Review of the S770. Read it, it might tell you some things that make you dislike it. (It's not as pretty as most, for example, and the speakers are rear-ported, meaning they'll need to not be up against the wall for the best sound.)

So I just unplugged it, to run the battery down.

Jesse, IIRC that is only useful with NiCad batteries. NiMH and Lithium batteries don't have the same problems with shallow discharge/frequent recharge.

Sadly, I don't think my living room is anywhere near big enough to justify needing 6 or 7.1 surround-sound. The speakers would be practically on top of each other.

I think I've decided on the Yamaha YHT-150 600-Watt 5.1-Channel Home Theater in a Box. I want to see it in person before I decide, just to make sure the inputs are what I think they are, but so far, it's the best value I've seen.

Whoot! Friend of a friend came through, so I bought a Dell Inspiron that hits pretty much all my reqs, except just cd-burner instead of dvd-burner, but still, all quite good and at $800, way better price-wise than I could do through normal channels.

So yay!

Speaking of which I'm still looking for a used Mac Powerbook/iBook or PC laptop for Andi (windsparrow). It should be as cheap as possible, but still able to surf the 'net and do her online courses. Perhaps even have a DVD drive, but we'll see.

I'd like to find her something along the lines of a G3 Pismo or better, or a Pentium II/III Windows machine. Basically not too old that parts are scarce, and not too new that it's over a $300-$400 maximium budget. Any funds saved can be used for her move to Minnesota, (should she choose to...)

I'll be stepping up my search now.

Jessica:

If you can't justify a 6.1 system, I'd recommend still going for an Onkyo HTiB, rather than the Yamaha. You can get a refurbished Onkyo S670 5.1 system for about the same price as that Yamaha from Amazon. You could probably check out the dealer they are partnering with directly, too, and read about inputs and whatnot. My guess is, it's almost as good as the 770.

ETA: Huh. Oops. That link is actually for a refurbished 770 system, not 670. Still, for that price you could get the 770 and just not plug in the back-center speaker (the receiver will allow you to specify 5.1 instead of 6.1)

Or, you could check out this Refurbished HT-S570 5.1 system, which is cheaper than either. Though I'm not sure about its power, where these HTiB's shine is more in the sound quality (clarity) - how loud do you want your speakers to go?

ETA Some More: Looks like the S570 has the same power rating as the Yamaha for the satellites, and is actually higher for the subwoofer (150 Watt instead of 100 Watt), and it looks like it has pretty similar inputs, including 2 digital audio inputs, 1 multi-channels input (in case you ever get into DVD-Audio or SA-CD audio), and 4 normal a/v inputs. Neither of them have component video or s-video input/outputs, but if you run your DVD video straight into a TV, that doesn't matter. Plus, it looks like the Onkyo has some front inputs, which is great if you have a video game machine, for example, that is sometimes plugged in and sometimes not. I'd say that the refurbished S570 is almost certainly a better deal than the Yamaha, unless you can find it, too, refurbished and even cheaper.

ETA Even more: Oh man! In comparing detailed specs of the Onkyo S570 and the Yamaha YHT-150, I noticed something pretty important: the Yamaha satellites use full-range drivers only, while the Onkyo satellites have a combo woofer/tweeter setup. You may not know what this means but, in a nutshell, it means the Onkyo satellites are almost guaranteed to be MUCH higher quality than the Yamaha ones, with much greater clarity both in the midrange and the high range. Also, the Onkyo satellites have bigger woofers, for louder midrange sound - on movies, that's important. Finally, the Onkyo has an 8" driver in its subwoofer, which most enthusiasts would consider inadequate, but the Yamaha has an even worse 6.5" driver - that won't push out loud, clear bass at ALL.

Basically, in comparing these specs, it's clear that the Onkyos are a FAR superior set of speakers, and that refurbished price is fantastic. Make your own decision, naturally, but the Onkyo will sound better.

I wish I 1) had a TV setup warranting this kind of sound system, and 2) I wasn't emigrating to Spain within 3 years.

I can't justify anything electronicy - no new TV, no new sound system, etc. Stupid regionalisms. (and stupid poverty)

Question?

Is an iPod worth it?

Is the sky blue?

Careful with the reading of Spec sheets Nova they often do not tell the whole story. Multidriver cabinets do not guarantee a better sound. They add the need for a crossover, in the case of those most likely a passive one, and if not well built they introduce a dip in frequency response at the crossover point. Also if the drivers are not aligned in space then they will add phase cancellation to you audio which is also a problem. When I get home from Toronto tonight I'm sure I'll write some more on this. My advice on home systems is to always go and listen to them. Pick the one that has the sound you like. You will often be surprised to find that it is not the one with the stellar looking spec sheet.