Entrance Level Home Theater Speakers

If they're audiophiles, have you considered a two speaker system? Maybe something like a pair of Magnepan MMGs would make them happy. I don't have my home theater together yet (I'll buy a TV in a week or two), but will be running it with just my stereo speakers. 90% of what I care about is the dialog, and my current speakers will do a fine job.

 

You offered them a receiver without speakers ? Its like a car without wheels and motor. 

 

If they are really audiophile they should know what they want.

Edited by Omega17TheTrue - 1/11/11 at 4:35am

Budget surround systems....

 

Things like the Boston Acoustics SoundWave XS

Q Acoustics 1010is (recently replaced by the 2000 series)

Wharfedale Achromatic or Moviestar packages

Kef do some entry level speaker packages as well.

 

I'm in the UK though so I dunno what availability will be like for all of those.

 

The thing to remember with home theater receivers is that you have to divide the overall cost by the amount of channels to work out roughly how much you're paying per channel. So a £400 stereo amp will have better sound quality than a £700 7.1 amp as the former will be about £200 per channel and the latter £100. Luckily since you're going for budget speakers it shouldn't matter too much since it's only once you get into the realm of mid-fi floorstanders/center speakers that you start needing to pay a lot more for a receiver that will bring out the best in them.

 

Probably best if you audition stuff too, since the only person that can really decide if it sounds good is you.

The Boston XS speakers are quite discreet but sound pretty good for their size, are from the US so you should be able to get them easily and don't cost a ton. How big is the room they'll be in? They are entry level but will fill a medium sized room okay. If you're not listening to a lot of music on them and want something just for the TV/movies then they'll be fine.

 

Then again, what's their budget for speakers? It's much easier to make recommendations once you know what price bracket you're working with, since there are generally the 'style' budget speakers and bookshelf budget speakers, which can be quite different.

My experience with parents and relatives has been that they prefer compact systems that are easy on the eyes, simple and easy to install. Ideally you should be looking at satellite packages of 5.1 units. Almost all the major manufacturers do this now and its not hard to find decent sounding systems from them for a good price.

That Wharfdale Achromatic WA-S1 set $600? is the budget speaker set recommendation by Home Theater mag, so that would be a safe bet if you can find it.

 

Dayton probably has the best sets in the $100-$250 range:

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=CAT&srchCat=766

 

Although I would probably get three-four pairs of these and one of these myself:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-652

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-635

 

I'm quite impressed with the B652 speakers - they perform more like $100 speakers than $30-35 speakers.  With a sub I'm sure they'd sound spectacular.

 

With any of them, you'll need stands (probably: if there's nowhere to put them, or if you just want to get the best sound) and cables too.

 

I've got a shorter pair of these stands - they're quite good (excellent for the price), but you'd have to be a good son and assemble them for your parents:

http://www.amazon.com/SANUS-SYSTEMS-BF-31B-Speaker-Stands/dp/B00006JQ5O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1294788014&sr=8-2

Edited by BlackbeardBen - 1/11/11 at 3:40pm