In reply to AustinBirdMan - I agree with most of what you say. My father always taught me to buy quality first. If you can't afford quality, then you wait to buy. Otherwise, you'll end up spending more in the end. Simple yet sage advice.
Now, here is where I disagree with you, and agree with Twirly - You can't deny people the important first step towards home theater - 5.1, even if it ends up costing them more in the end.
Take me, for example - I bought a HTIB before they were called HTIB. It was a shelf system with two fronts with integrated, separately wired subs, two satelite surrounds and a center. It came with 5.1 inputs for DVD, and ProLogic for TV and VHS. The amp was around 400 watts (Whatever that means on a system like this...) and cost me around US$400. This was in 2000. So, for $400, I got everything that I wanted and was a very happy man. Yes, the components were crap, but THEY MADE ME HAPPY. And guess what - four years later, all I want to do is upgrade to a REAL HOME THEATER. Nobody could have convinced me four years ago that I shouldn't buy a car - that I should buy a Home THeater instead (although I've gotten more use out of my HTIB than my car - and the HTIB is still around and my car is basically up on blocks now). That would have been crazy.
Now to my point. Testing out a friend's home theater is great - but it feels more like a gimmick when you hear it without having your own system to compare it to (even if it is a crap system). Without really sitting down and living with a crappy HTIB, and then listening to a good HT, you won't believe that it is worth it, or you won't know what you're missing, and you won't desire it.
So - how to convince somebody to get a real HT instead of an HTIB - Let them make their own mistakes, and in the end, they will be convincing you why they should upgrade their system (and maybe you should too, while he's at it...)
