I got this Denon system from Circuit City for $500 and it came with Boston Acoustic speakers. You can get a IPod dock for it. It's a good quality system for the price and it sounds great.

 

**** bose. Don't waste your money.. it's a complete rip off. As mentioned above, bose is complete garbage when price is factored in. If you want small speakers (which will never give you great sound regardless), there are much, much better choices than bose.

And just something to think about.. A high quality 2.1 setup will sound better than a crappy 5.1 setup that costs the same. Personally if I were looking for something in your price range, I'd get a nice 2.1 setup and add speakers later as funds allowed.

 

i have the onkyo hrt s800, i got it for right under 500 bucks from circuit city saving 10% by purchasing it online. its a 7.1 system with 2 hdmi inputs and 1 out and rated at 1000 watts I believe. if you have a ps3 and an hdtv I highly suggest using HDMI. It sounds amazing, many critics say 7.1 is over rated but who cares

 

I'm glad somebody chimed in with this. You're going to be A LOT happier with 2 good speakers and good components than you are with 5 speakers banging crappy, tin-can sound in every direction.

For under $1K, I'd get a decent Denon/Onkyo/Marantz receiver and a pair of Epos or PSB speakers.

 

Stay far, far away. You can do much better for the price.

 

No highs, no lows, must be Bose. If someone gave me a Bose system I'd sell it without opening it.

I like the Mirage nanosat system too. I almost bought a used one off audiogon.com before I decided to buy a much more expensive system.

Check out www.avsforum.com for some reviews too. Search for HTIB, or look for the HTIB forum. I'm pretty sure they have one.

 

^ Yeah, definitely the best that I've found for big box speakers. For $500, I'd still go Mirage Nanostat though (sacrificing a larger sweet spot and ambient channels for a bit higher sound and build quality) and add either a cheaper receiver (planning to upgrade) or a fancier one now that can decode Dolby Master Audio and the other new uncompressed Blu Ray format that has 1,000x the data of CD audio. Both are irrelevant today but won't be for too long. The 7.1 formats understood by the Onkyo receiver may or may not be supported by discs in 2-3 years. That's unfortunately the dual edged sword of digital data formats... The Yamaha DSP soundbars are already having problems with a few Blu Rays, forcing the 5-channel audio to 2-channel stereo because they can't decode the newest formats. Something to consider as everyone goes to HD discs...

 

Bose

My friends parents had a Bose system that they thought was hands down Gods gift to ears, but it sounded dull to me. If I was going to get something with small speakers, I'd just get some super cheap 5.1 Sony boxed surround set as speakers that are so small just aren't going to sound the way I'd want them to anyway. You can get Sony system like this for ~$200. Much better value than any Bose system, in which you'll pay 5 times that amount for marginally better sound. And when I say marginally, I'm being generous.

You have a decent TV and a nice HD player. Anything <$1000 is ruining the experience IMO.

If you can space your purchase out a couple months or spend a bit more, I'd probably go with a yamaha/klipsch combo. You could probably spend $349 on a receiver (Yamaha HTR-5940) and ~$800 on 6 RB-15 Klipsch loudspeakers (I'd definitely go with the reference series over the synergy series. The difference in the quality of the sound is very noticeable. Don't get me wrong, the synergy series are great, but the reference are true audiophile speakers at a rock bottom price.) Then over the next month or two, add a powered sub (preferably downward firing), the Klipsch KSW-12 (I suggest this over some cheaper smaller reference subwoofers, that may have a tighter reflex, the KSW-12 will give you that thump you're looking for without being too boomy), for $399, is a great value. I know that's stretching your budget, but you'll be listening to this for years to come. This system would give you much better dynamic range than any crappy small speaker systems and even better a lot of large speaker systems.

My $0.02.

http://www.yamaha.com/yec/products/product...04&CTID=5000400

http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/rb-15.aspx

http://www.klipsch.com/products/details/ksw-12.aspx

 

I would go with Definitive Technology Pro Monitor 800/1000..speakers..

 

Yeah it sounds like most people who have posted here are dead on.
Bose, better sound through marketing... and Klipsch is good stuff, that KSW-12 is one of the best subs that you can go out and buy for the money at a local CC or whatever, Onkyo makes very good receivers for the money, and most of the stuff people have been mentioning is really good stuff.

Bottom line, do yourself a favor, do a little research, avsforum is an awesome sight, and you won't regret it.

In some ways, you will never listen to movies, music, games, etc the same, and you will start to notice how crapy everyone else