Any good home theater systems out there for less than $150?

[Brandon1]

The speaker system in my shop kinda kicked the bucket last week. I am going to take the surround sound out of my bedroom and put back in the shop b/c it has more power vs. some of the ones on the market right now. So now I will be looking for something to go back in my room for sound. It dosent have to be 5.1, I can work with 2.1. Phillips has a nice looking 2.1 dvd system for less than $100. It has 100w total. Radio Shack had a Kenwood 1000w system for $149 the other day, but now it's $199.

Have any ideas?

[EdLancer]

Originally Posted by Brandon1

The speaker system in my shop kinda kicked the bucket last week. I am going to take the surround sound out of my bedroom and put back in the shop b/c it has more power vs. some of the ones on the market right now. So now I will be looking for something to go back in my room for sound. It dosent have to be 5.1, I can work with 2.1. Phillips has a nice looking 2.1 dvd system for less than $100. It has 100w total. Radio Shack had a Kenwood 1000w system for $149 the other day, but now it's $199.

Have any ideas?

For that price range you can have two options, stick with medicore run of the mill stuff you find in retail stores or make your own audiophile grade system. I am with the later DIY self crowd, I get audiophile grade sound quality at mediocore gear prices. The difference is unbelievable until you hear the difference when you compare the two systems. I compared several episodes of StarGate SG1 on my run of the mill Teac 5.1 HT system to my Trends Audio TA-10 and I noticed all the sound details I was missing with the Teac. I could hear the room echoes, the details, clairty and transparency that were present in the sound track, but was not able to be picked up by retail amps. Since discovering audiophile grade system, there is no turning back after I noticed all the audio details I was missing.

41Hz Amp 9 is a 4 channel unit @$100us
http://www.41hz.com/main.aspx?pageID=130

AudioDigit kits
AudioDigit - Audio Amplifiers

Here is someone that went all out, he started a business making enclosures to house a $39 amp that sounds miles ahead of any retail gear:
page2

[Brandon1]

Eh, those look like only amps. I have to have a decent set of speakers and a reciever to plug it into. I like the idea though, even though it is only a garage I want some decent sound.

[EdLancer]

Yes, you need very efficient speakers(90dB+) for these amps, so if space is not a problem then the bigger the speakers the more efficient. North American taste in the past decade has been to small bookshelf speakers, with these small units you need alot of power and then you still miss alot of the details.

The amp is the most important part of the system, everything else is accessories in my book. You can have a nice decent DVD player for under $75, hook that up to a decent amp and speakers you got yourself an audiophile grade system. With the quality of decent digital sound produced by iPods MP3 and CD/DVD players, the source is no longer a problem, it is the amplification that requires the attention to technology and research which is still basically the same design since the 1950's.

Do a search on Google for "Sonic Impact T-Amps" and you will discover what all the rave is about.