Question: Dear Big Picture Big Sound, I am attempting to put together a small but efficient sounding home theater system in a 8 x 10 room in my home. I have looked at several audio receivers and want the best quality sound for the buck. I have looked at the Denon AVR888 and it seems to be a decent price. Other people have suggested going with Outlaw Audio system for better quality sound. I would appreciate any suggestions on what receivers I might consider in different price ranges. I will also need home theater surround speaker system. I have a Sony HDTV XBR 40 inch, Sony Blu-ray 300 DVD player, Direct TV HD Channels as the start of my home theater system. I would like to build a system that will provide clear quality dialogue and superior sound effects when watching movies. -Jack B. Hello, Jack, I don't claim to have omniscient powers or direct experience with all of the myriad products in the home theater speaker and AVR (audio/video receivers) market. There are many choices available which will provide an enjoyable viewing and listening experience without requiring a home improvement loan. But that said, I do have my own favorites for budget home theater gear. And you'll find these in this recently updated article: For HDMI cables, you probably don't need to spend a lot of money. I like these ones for about $10 each: In terms of the receiver brands and products you mentioned, Outlaw Audio doesn't currently make a receiver that supports HDMI so they're not really in the running for a budget home theater receiver, as far as I am concerned. I hope they add HDMI capabilities soon because I am a fan of their products otherwise. Denon makes excellent receivers but to get a Denon with features comparable to the Onkyo TX-SR605 requires spending more than twice as much money. The DTR888 is a very nice receiver but it does not support Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio. I believe you'd need to go up to the AVR-2808CI for those features. And although I do like the Polk system mentioned in the article (and it's a great deal), speakers are generally a more personal thing so be sure you can either listen to the speakers before buying them or make sure the place you buy them has a decent return policy. Hope that helps, -Chris
Best regards,
Answer:
These are by no means the only choices in the budget price range but these are strong performers in the entry-level price category. The Onkyo receiver supports all of the new next generation surround sound codecs from Dolby and DTS and upconverts analog video sources (like DVD players and VCRs) to HDMI as well so you only need one cable between the receiver and TV (an HDMI cable). You can connect the Blu-ray disc player and DIRECTV box to the receiver via HDMI as well, so you'll really only need 3 HDMI cables (and some speaker cable) to wire up the whole system. If you need more than the 2 HDMI inputs on the Onkyo TX-SR605, or a little more power, you can try the TX-SR705 or TX-SR805.
