Design the best "budget" home theater system???


Last summer, after taking a cue from the person who started the "ultimate audio system" thread, I decided I wanted to see if anyone can design and build an "ultimate" home theater system as well, and thus, I started a thread titled "What about the ultimate home theater". There, I created a system that I saw that I considered to be the ultimate. Something that was a killer system. A system that I considered to be over the top. And while I would like to buy and own the less expensive version of the system that I have designed to start that thread off with have I had the money buy one with. That system would still be the one I would buy today if money was no object. Now, I would like to know what kind of [killer] system you would design if money IS an object. Let's say you want a design a killer, cutting edge home theater system on a more restricted shoestring budget of say....... $5,000.00. What kind of system would you buy, and what components would it consist of???

Okay....... I'll go first........ Here's mine!!!!

Television/Monitor: Toshiba Cinema Series 42HDX82 42" HD Ready Wide Screen Rear Projection Television -- $2,200.00

DVD Player: Philips DVD Q50 Progressive Scan DVD Player with Faroudja DCDi Processor with 3:2 Pulldown -- $400.00

Speaker System: Paradigm System Three Speaker Ensemble with Titan (Fronts.... Left and Right), CC-170 (Center Channel), ADP-170 (Dipolar Surrounds) and PDR-12 (Subwoofer) -- $1,200.00*

Audio/Video Receiver: NAD T752 Audio/Video Receiver with 80W x 5, D-D, D P-LII, D-D EX, DTS, DTS ES, DTS NEO:6 and Matrix 7.1. Also has pre outs for all channels and two subwoofers as well as component video inputs and outputs -- $900.00

Cables: Monster Cable M-Series -- $500.00*

Power Conditioning: Monster Cable PowerCenter HTS 1000 -- $150.00

Okay..... maybe I went over the $5,000.00 limit JUST a little...... but not by much. But now..... if I could eat oodles of noodles and maccoroni and cheese and live off of that for about three weeks, or better yet, try to get the components of this system for below retail (which means I can eat better after that), then you will find that this system will be at or even below the price point so stated.

Now..... I would like to see yours. If given a meesley little sum of $5,000.00 (or less, if you think you can do better for less), and you wanted a killer, cutting edge home theater system, how would you go about it???

The components can be new or used if you like. It just happen so that all of the components in my hypothetical system is brand new. But anyway, I want to see what you can come up with for the same $5,000.00. Just for fun sake.

This ought to give you [a little] something to do during this snowy weekend (if you live on the north east coast like I do).

Good Luck........ and again, I want to see what you can come up with for $5,000.00.

Thanks In Advance........ and Have Fun!!!!!

--Charles--
128x128chaskelljr2001

Showing 1 response by chaskelljr2001

"Subaruguru":

Great system. I see you exceeded your system by $500.00. So now.... I don't have to feel so guilty in going over my hypothetical system by almost $200.00.

But yeah, unless you get a DVD player that was also designed to be a good CD player (and they are out there..... they're just high as shit.... that's all), asking an average DVD player to play CDs and to play them correctly is just asking a little too much (my Pioneer Elite DV-37 is an exception..... but even then, it can be bettered..... just wait until my Sony DVP-S9000ES finally arrives (which is also a DVD player..... but it was also designed to be a good CD player too.... plus it is built like a tank.... and because the DVP-S9000ES is now discontinued..... I don't have to go into debt to obtain one either)), and your Panasonic DVD player is just like my Toshiba DVD player. It's an excellent machine for movies, but it's crappy machine for playing CDs. Let's just accept the fact that good DVD players just aren't designed to be good CD players. That's the bottom line. So now, since you do have everything in place as far as your home theater is concerned, and if you want to play music with your system as well, then you're going to need a machine that is designed to play CDs only. There's no getting around it. So yes, the NAD C541i sounds like an excellent idea. If your system is up to it, you can get a better one if you like.

Cheers To You As Well!!!!!!

--Charles--