Looking for a HTIB for 'htpc' - some games and movies too

[MadMan007]

Yea so I'd been thinking about this for a whlie and occasionally checking out deals. Got an email from CC My only hesitation is that it IS CC who has a poor return policy but if that set is as good as people say then it won't matter. http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Customer-reviews-for-Onkyo-Home-Theater-System-HT-S790/sem/rpsm/oid/148967/rpem/ccd/productDetailReview.do#tabs <- $400, a good deal?

Any special recommendations - anything cheaper that's still good? I'm usually the type who will spend a bit more to get a lot better, but within reason too, I wouldn't want to put more than $400-500 max into a receiver+speakers atm. I suspect that Onkyo system qualifies but I'd like some input. If there are some especially nice speakers for about $300-400 though I could do that and get a new receiver later, I do have an old Dolby Pro Logic I could use for now. I might be willing to get speakers and then a receiver separately but if I can get good speakers and a good receiver in a combo that's fine too of course.

[soulrider4ever]

I have this receiver, and it kicks ass, I paid $420 shipped. It's a good supplement until TrueHD etc. comes out, and HDMI is the standard for video/audio.

[MadMan007]

Yea the receiver with that package is nice. I kind of changed my mind though and will look more in to things. I listened to some speakers at BB and CC, of course it was far from the ideal listening environment but I was very impressed by the JBL speaker line. I think I might go with some JBL bookshelf speakers, the ones that use the titanium tweeter and polyplas woofer. There's a voice-matched center channel for it as well then I'd just add a sub. The negative of that to me is I don't buy in to the whole 'low frequency non-directional' thing, I've had speakers that have their own large woofer before and a satellite/sub setup doesn't compare - I can always tell that the low frequencies are coming from a single source. Maybe it depends a bit on the crossover range but for a mixed-use computer a satellite/sub setup would be ok.

I'd probably use my current pro logic receiver for the time being then look for sales on a decent 5.1 or 7.1 receiver or maybe just an amp. This way I get more time to do research rather than jumping on a deal so fast plus it seems as if CC and others run deals on that set on a regular basis. The downside to that is I'd definitely end up spending more because a decent stand-alone receiver would run at least $300. I don't really want a high-end receiver that would be the core of a full HT and audio setup but to get something that isn't crap requires stepping up about $100 over the low-spec parts.