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http://www.audiogon.com
These guys will have you buying tube equipment before long, but they know their stuff.
http://www.avsforum.com
Home Theater buffs with a tremendous amount of knowledge.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com
Similar to the above, but it's a slightly different crowd. It's hard to explain.

I've learned a wealth of information from these sites. You'll find that these guys are all talking about spending a lot more than your budget on their hardware, but they are the guys you want to ask about a $1500 system, because they're the ones critical enough to sift the wheat from the chaff, even though they might not buy the system themselves. (Obviously I'm stereotyping here. Many of the people on the forums are as strapped for cash as the next guy.) For equipment reviews, www.audioreview.com is good, and so is www.etown.com. Audioreview seems to have a good quantity of reviews and etown has good quality reviews. For buying equipment, if you are looking for used stuff, look at audioreview and audiogon before going to ebay, and you'll like what you find. I prefer dealing with people who know what they're selling when possible.

Anyway, good luck, and welcome to the "club"!

David Fay

P.S. FYI, my current setup:

Sony 1272 CRT projector (92" x 52" 16:9 home-made screen)
PC with DVD-ROM drive, SBLive! (SPDIF out), and PowerDVD 2.55
Pioneer Elite receiver (older one, no DTS)
B&W Nautilus 804 mains
Dual SVS 20-39 subwoofers with the Fidek 600W amp

I need to get surrounds and a center, but so far things are sounding and looking good! HTPC (home theater PC) is definitely the way to go if you can. There's nothing like watching a DVD in 1280x720@72Hz resolution on a projector.

As far as a receiver, I've heard very good things about the Outlaw Audio 1050. It's a 6.1 channel receiver, but for $599 (available only by ordering online directly). From all that I've read, quality such as theirs would normally cost a few hundred more. And, I'm not the type to usually buy such inexpensive components (in contrast to the Panasonic DVD H1000 that I own, for instance), but this product just won me over. As such, I'll be placing an order for one within a couple weeks. And, no, I don't work for them ;).

Alex Bischoff
---

After I've spent few months listening and reviewing (get to http://www.audioreview.com - it is VERY useful), I've decided to get:

Onkyo TX-DS787 - Pioner DV-626 DVD player (zone free, reads *everything*, extremely good picture and sound) - Mission 703 (front), Mission 701 (surround) and Mission 70c2 (center).

Mission speakers are extremely nice, although you might want to consider getting subwoofer if you have bigger room. Onkyo is outstanding - has THX, DTS and all the bells and whistles you need. I would buy it only for 'All channel stereo' - it is *amazing* (Denon AVR-2801/3801 also have all channel stereo, but Onkyo really sounded better).

Although I was getting this for home theater only, I can tell you that I am very happy with it when it comes to listening audio as well.

For receivers, get: Onkyo or Denon or Yamaha
For speakers, get: Mission 70x/70cx series or JBL N series (don't take N center speaker though - get the S series), or Polk Audio.
For DVD player: take whatever you like. I was choosing between Pioneer and Sony, but Pioneer had better picture (of course, it's my opinion :).

I too have an xbr400 and have been researching for an affordable speaker/receiver combination.
Well, I got the speaker part down:
check out the deftechs reviews on the procinema 80 system for under $1000: http://www.audioreview.com/reviews/Speaker/product _7169.shtml
They get nothing but great reviews.

I chose the Energy Take 5's as my speaker setup because of their clear, full sound, their size, and their price.

Take 5 Info:
Home Theatre Forum Take 5 Info
Audio Review Take 5 Information

I chose the DB 940 because many of my coworkers love the 930, and the 940 is the newer model.

Sony DB 940 Info:
Audio Review DB 940 Info

I'm very happy with my setup. It sounds better than a Denon/Paradigm setup that cost over $1000 more (college buddy tried to outdo my setup but failed).

I also have the 36" Sony WEGA. Pretty phat.

Don't forget the need for quality cables. They don't come cheap.

Bottom line, just read the reviews at web sites. You'll quickly get an idea of what's good and what's overpriced crap. Bose, for instance...
-LB

I chose the Energy Take 5's as my speaker setup because of their clear, full sound, their size, and their price.

Take 5 Info:
Home Theatre Forum Take 5 Info
Audio Review Take 5 Information

I chose the DB 940 because many of my coworkers love the 930, and the 940 is the newer model.

Sony DB 940 Info:
Audio Review DB 940 Info

I'm very happy with my setup. It sounds better than a Denon/Paradigm setup that cost over $1000 more (college buddy tried to outdo my setup but failed).

I also have the 36" Sony WEGA. Pretty phat.

Don't forget the need for quality cables. They don't come cheap.

Bottom line, just read the reviews at web sites. You'll quickly get an idea of what's good and what's overpriced crap. Bose, for instance...
-LB

The best possible thing you can ever do for your hard earned money when purchasing audio equiptment is to get yourself out of your house and into a store that will let you audition every piece of equiptment in your price range in any configuration.

Have your sales person hook up their most sonically neutral sounding receiver to the speakers you want to hear. You will then be able to determine how the speakers perform. If you leave the volume at the same level for all speakers, you will hear which spekers are more efficient (they will be louder), which ones are brighter (they will have more treble), which ones are warmer (they will have more midrange and bass), and which ones are more neutral (no augmentation of either high, mid or low). Now you can make a speaker decision based on *your* preferences. And since you are the one spending the money, you being happy with your purchase is all that matters!

Now, as for my tastes, I prefer very neutral sounding speakers and receivers. My latest home theater purchase included all Paradigm speakers. Monitor 7's in the front, Mini-Monitor's in the rear, the CC-350 center channel and the PW-2200 subwoofer. Paradigm is a well respeced brand in the home theater arena for their incredible price/performance.

My receiver choice was the Integra DTR-7.1. Integra is Onkyo's mid-end line of equiptment. This receiver was chosen for its very neutral sounding output, its ability to decode DTS, DTS ES (new 6.1 encoding format)Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital EX (new 6.1 encoding format).

If you are interested in reading other consumers revies on equiptment, check out Audio Review. You will find many reviews on nearly every piece of equiptment you are looking at.

Happy Home Theater Hunting!

Sincerely,
Robert J. Casey Jr.

http://audioreview.com/reviews/avreceiver/index_by name.shtml

I currently have the Infinity RS-10's as my front speakers.
These monsters are increadible. I purchased them for a very nice price of $700 for the pair at Ubid.com.
You can sometimes find very good deals on receivers and speakers there.

Another good site to check is audioreview.com. It has information on a LOT of audio components.

Enjoy!

Byzandula

Anyways, to get a little more serious (but critical) of this machine, why does it have a Sega Master System? Why not a Sega Genesis? But, I will add that it does have more than what my DVD player came with. I looked at the specifications page, and it appears to have all the functions you would want, but I would want to see a demo first, and rent a movie (preferably with some scratches and dust) to play on it before committing to a purchase.

All in all, I check out sites like www.audioreview.com to help me make decisions about DVD players and stereo equipment. I've never heard of Dulux, and it is probably another brand that made this machine but Dulux put the case on it with their logo. I'd want to find out who really made it first.