Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Beginner HT system advice

Hey all,

I have been looking for some advice on a beginner home theatre system. I want to keep the HT separate from my 2.1 stereo system. I don't have a great TV, yet, but I recently got an amazing deal on two pairs of Michaura speakers (M55 and M66, built by Axiom). So I would only really need a sub and a centre in order to have 5.1 on a dedicated HT system. What I don't have is a clue about HT receivers. I would like to get a Sony 40" LCD HDTV (after some serious footwork, I have decided that's the best one out there for the money. And I don't want any bigger). I really only want to spend around $300-$500 on something for now that I will be able to live with when I get the TV. I'm not sure I need HDMI, or whether I fully understand how sound works with HDMI. I'm totally open to looking for something used too.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks very much!

Zoë

Zoe, keeping well within your budget, a very good deal at the moment(these things sometimes change daily)is the Onkyo 605 factory refurb from Accessories4less for about $350 with free shipping.

One thing I noticed when my brother was looking for a Rx was that none of the stuff under $700 at Future Shop/Best Buy (Denon, HK, Yamaha, Pioneer, Sony) accepted audio over HDMI, despite being HDMI v1.3. I think the Denon 788 (1908) was the cheapest at $699. Mind you, you have probably noticed that A/V Rx are about half the price down south.

I would concour that for around $350 the Onkyo 605 is a good value.

Thanks everyone! I guess I've got a real newbie question here, which is do I have to use the HDMI for audio? Can I just use it for video? Will I really notice that big of a difference in video from RCA cables?

Zoe, since I don't have an HDMI compatible receiver, I hook my HD DVD player directly to my TV. I use the analog connections from the DVD player to my receiver for audio. The only problem I have is that I have to turn the volume all the way down on my TV because the HDMI carries both audio and video to the TV and I don't have any way to turn the audio portion off.

I run the hdmi to my tv from my dvd player but I run the audio via optical to the receiver. It works great as far as I can tell.

There's really no way to turn the TV speaker off? What about a mute button instead of dialing down the volume? Or does that make it say mute on the TV the whole time? Just curious about your TV, I suppose.

It says "mute" the entire time.

On the off chance, is there something like a Display button, and would that affect the Mute message appearing on the screen? I imagine it wouldn't affect that, but shots in the dark pass the time.