Kennyt:
I hear you man. Before I can say anything about home theater speaker systems, let me lay down the difference between men and women. Men want their speakers to sound good and perform well, damn the cost, looks and the size of the critters. Women on the other hand, tend to go for looks, and sound quality (and in many cases, cost and size) be damned in their case. You catch my drift, don't you?? So, while it is okay to have a girlfriend and all (I know, I have one too. But she ain't living with me, and that's fine too. That way, I can put in the kind of s**t that I want to put in when it comes to my home theater. I'm heavily into this stuff, she's not), all I am saying is be careful man. Because right now, it may start with dating and courtship (and that is one of most beautiful phases of beginning a relationship), but soon enough, you'll be feeding breakfast to her in bed, and then the dreaded "M" word is going to come up, and we all know what that means. When the "M" thing happens, your stuff becomes her stuff too. But when the relationship goes sour, it's funny that nine times out of ten, she's the one that ends up with the stuff that you have bought. So, at a risk of opening up a can of worms here, all I'm saying is, be careful. I'm in the same boat as you are, but in my situation, she already knows how I feel about marriage. As soon as you say "I DO" to her, she'll be getting half of everything right off the top. And when it comes to my home theater, I ain't having that s**t.
But anyway, on to speaker systems now. For a budget of $2,000, here's what I would look at:
(A). Keep your receiver and dvd player right now. You have a very nice A/V Receiver.
(B). For speakers, if looks as well as sound are going to be part of the issue, I would go for something like the Gallo system that others have mentioned. I would also go for a H/T ensemble from either Cambridge Audio, Definitive Technology (they aren't bad looking speakers either) or from Infinity (they also make some speakers that look good as well as sound good). Boston Acoustics will be another one I'll be looking at also. If you can come away with something decent without reverting to an awful sounding Bose Acoustimass 7 system, then you'll be doing something great.
Let us know what you end up with. Good Luck.
--Charles--
I hear you man. Before I can say anything about home theater speaker systems, let me lay down the difference between men and women. Men want their speakers to sound good and perform well, damn the cost, looks and the size of the critters. Women on the other hand, tend to go for looks, and sound quality (and in many cases, cost and size) be damned in their case. You catch my drift, don't you?? So, while it is okay to have a girlfriend and all (I know, I have one too. But she ain't living with me, and that's fine too. That way, I can put in the kind of s**t that I want to put in when it comes to my home theater. I'm heavily into this stuff, she's not), all I am saying is be careful man. Because right now, it may start with dating and courtship (and that is one of most beautiful phases of beginning a relationship), but soon enough, you'll be feeding breakfast to her in bed, and then the dreaded "M" word is going to come up, and we all know what that means. When the "M" thing happens, your stuff becomes her stuff too. But when the relationship goes sour, it's funny that nine times out of ten, she's the one that ends up with the stuff that you have bought. So, at a risk of opening up a can of worms here, all I'm saying is, be careful. I'm in the same boat as you are, but in my situation, she already knows how I feel about marriage. As soon as you say "I DO" to her, she'll be getting half of everything right off the top. And when it comes to my home theater, I ain't having that s**t.
But anyway, on to speaker systems now. For a budget of $2,000, here's what I would look at:
(A). Keep your receiver and dvd player right now. You have a very nice A/V Receiver.
(B). For speakers, if looks as well as sound are going to be part of the issue, I would go for something like the Gallo system that others have mentioned. I would also go for a H/T ensemble from either Cambridge Audio, Definitive Technology (they aren't bad looking speakers either) or from Infinity (they also make some speakers that look good as well as sound good). Boston Acoustics will be another one I'll be looking at also. If you can come away with something decent without reverting to an awful sounding Bose Acoustimass 7 system, then you'll be doing something great.
Let us know what you end up with. Good Luck.
--Charles--