Hey folks. After some research, I've decided on going with the Epic Grand Master 500 speaker system for my home theater project. I will construct a dedicated room in the basement for this. My delima now is finding a quality AVR (since separates are out of price range at the moment) to drive the speakers. Ones I've been looking at: Arcam AVR500, Rotel RSX-1550 and Denon AVR-4310CI. I'm looking for clean power and Dolby TrueHD capable. My budget is $3k. Thanks for looking and any advise you may give.

If I were to get a receiver I'd get the Integra DTR-80.1. Plenty of bells and whistles and plenty of power!

Listed for $2800


http://integrahometheater.com/model.cfm?m=DTR-80.1&class=Receiver&p=s

With a $3K budget, I'd probably get a midrange receiver (say, $1000) + a real nice amp.

I cannot fathom spending $3K on a receiver. It just doesn't compute.

Agreed.

I'm kind of with Ken here. I don't think you need to spend that kind of money to get excellent results.

I know you'll be very happy with the Epic Grand Master 500 system. Are you getting a stock finish or a custom finish? If you are getting a stock finish and have the room, for your budget I'd spend more on the speakers (i.e. get Epic 60 or Epic 80) and less on the receiver.

That being said, nobody has ever been disappointed with a Denon and I'm sure any of the models you mention would be quite lovely. Perhaps budget for a good universal remote control.

+1

Same here.

I would agree, buy a 2310 or something like that and see if that works for you. A seperate amp with the 22's is a waste of time. I have basically the Epic Grand Master 500 system with a different SVS sub, and my 2310 drives it without issues at all. I agree 100% about putting that money into a floorstanding system if your theatre room is more than about 2500 cubic feet. If not, put it against the mortgage or buy a really fancy beer fridge

Interesting. I'm glad I asked the question. I guess I always thought going with separates would be much more in price. Maybe I need to look at that again ....

Oh, and i'll be going with stock finish as the spekaers will be hidden in floor-to-ceiling columns.

lex, Axiom offers "in cabinet" versions of several speakers - you might want to look into those. Just putting a traditional speaker enclosure inside another enclosure (the columns) could seriously compromise the sound.