Need Good Home Theater Audio Setup?

Question

I am looking for advice on surround sound setup for a home theater. Never had one before, but it's time.

I have a Sharp 42" 720p LCD and a Toshiba HD-A3 HD DVD Player. The picture quality is fine, but the built in speakers on the TV aren't the best and are the only thing that pulls the setup down.

I'd like a good surround sound setup as cheap as possible (I'm still a college student, after all), but that works fine as well and won't be completely out of place with the rest of my equipment...However, I don't know anything about them.

What kind of jacks should I look for? The TV has all kinds (component, HDMI, etc) and the HD DVD Player does HDMI as well. I use HDMI for that setup, and component for xbox 360 / wii. What's the best way to get all this (or at least a couple) through the surround sound?

I prefer one without a dvd player as I have a good one, but also prefer to buy a package that includes speakers and keep costs down (around $200 would be ideal). Any recommendation?

Answer 1

The best bang you can get for the buck is to use what you have rather than replace it.  You don't need to worry about your Aiwa not having the currently fashionable connectors on it - just link the video to the TV and the audio to the Aiwa via a digital output  (there should be one or two on your HDDVD player).

Then you can just deal with speakers.  Start with two good ones- if you're really on a tight budget you can again get the best value this way.  Let's say you've got $600 to spend.  Two speakers valued at $300 each can give a much better overall sound than 6 speakers (5 plus a sub) which would only be valued at $100 each.  You can always add a sub, a center, and rears later on, but in the meantime your 2 ch home theater will kick butt over your those of your buddies.