When it comes to Home Theaters, it's all about experience. One can't say a Panasonic device is better than Sony, or that a Krell unit is better than an Onkyo. It's all about how the listener perceives the sound. Yes, you can compare specs and say one is better than the other on technical merits, but it's up to you, the listener, to decide which produces the best sound, for your ears.
When I first started building up my system, I spent endless hours reading reviews and checking out what devices people were using, on the high end and the low end. Once I narrowed down my list of manufactuers I was interested in, I hit the stores.
I spent over 1 month, going to different dealers, and demoed all the equipment that I was intersted in. I spent probably 20 hours listening to various speakers before making my choice. Remember to bring a couple CDs and DVDs of your favorite music and movies with you to test with. Always use the same tracks to test each different device so you have a baseline to compare with.
The first components I picked up were the 5.1 surround speakers which I ran off of a cheap pioneer reciever. Ever since, I have been slowly adding one component at a time. This is what I ended up with:
B&W 600 Series 3 Speakers
Front - DM603's
Front Center - LCR600
Rear Surround - DM602
Rear Center - JLB Studio Series Center
Sub Woofer - ASW 650
Components
Rotel RSX-1056 Multi-Channel Reciever
Rotel RMB-1075 120W Amp x 5 ch
Marantz DV8300 DVD
Pioneer Elite PRO-510HD 53" RPTV
Samsung DTV HD Tuner
Transparent & Monster cabeling
On a side note...
It's amazing what a $40k set of B&W Signatrue 800 speakers, each powered by 1000W monoblocks, sound like. I just could not image the sound field that they produces. I listened to these speakers in an empty, pitch dark room, and I couldn't tell that the sound was comming from speakers. It was as if a live orchestra was just a few feet in front of me. If you ever get a chance to listen to pair of these, do.
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