The following system would provide you with a 6.1 channel DTS compatible home theater system. It would also sound reasonably good on multi-channel music for the money invested. All prices quoted are for new units with full factory warrantees unless listed otherwise. These were random price quotes as found on the net and you can probably do better if you really look around. This is not meant to be the best that you can do for the money, but something that both you and she could enjoy with confidence while keeping things both simple and convenient. The electronics are cosmetically matched and you can use one remote for both the receiver and dvd player.
Receiver: Panasonic SA-HE200 $280 new / $200 refurb
This unit offers pretty good versatility, decent power and reasonable spec's. It can be run in 6.1 mode, 5.1 mode or standard 2 channel stereo. Designed for operation with the increased bandwidth of DVD-A i.e. bandwidth out to appr 100 KHz rather than the standard 20 KHz of most lower priced receivers and amps. Comes in black or silver.
DVD: Panasonic DVD-S25 $80
This is a
surprisingly good sounding CD player / solid performing DVD player, especially for the money involved. Black or silver low profile cosmetics.
Digital coaxial cable: Belden 1506A or 29248 $20
This is a very simple but good performing digital cable.
Speakers: BIC Venturi DV62Si $149 pr or BIC Venturi DV52Si $129 pr*
These speakers may not be recognized as being "audiophile quality", but they sound quite good for the money invested. The 62's will play a little louder, offer better bass response and have a little smoother sounding upper midrange. If you can swing it, the extra $20 per pair and little bit bigger cabinet are well worth it.
Sub: BIC Venturi D1015 $185
Not "king of the castle" by any means, but a decent value none the less.
Power Line Conditioner: Monster Cable HTS-2000 $125
This looks like an overgrown power strip on steroids. If you don't like the looks of this, take a look at the Panamax 1000 or 1000+. This is a rack mount sized device with filtering, surge protection and staggered turn on. Much more sophisticated than the Monster and available for about $100 used on Agon.
Speaker cabling: 500 ft of Carol E1044S ( Parts Express #100-730 ) $92
Good bang for the buck. Uses four 16 gauge conductors arranged in a spiral wrapped star quad.
The total for all of this would be right around $1250 if you went with the most expensive items suggested, shipping additional.
If you wanted to get "tweaky" and improve the speakers without spending much money, i would suggest the following modifications.
2 square yards of black felt & 2 rolls of "temporary hem tape" ( less than $15 from a local "craft" or "fabric shop" )
4 twenty oz bags of polyester fiberfil ( less than $2 per bag from Wal-Mart )
I would use the felt to cover the front baffle boards on the 6 speakers ( not the sub ). This means pulling the drivers out and cutting the felt to fit. Adhese a layer of tape just around the outside of each driver on the baffle and the outer edge of the speaker baffles. This will hold the felt in place without making any type of permanent marks. What this does is minimize reflections from the baffle, smooth out the sound and produce better imaging. For speakers that don't have "flush mounted" ( counter-sunk) mids and tweeters, this is a very simple to do tweak that works quite well.
While the speakers are pulled apart, install appr half a bag of the Polyester fiberfil into each of the cabinets. This will use up three bags for six speakers. The entire contents of the fourth bag should be placed inside the subwoofer. This will tighten up the sound, increase intelligibility, reduce out of band leakage from the ports and improve bass definition.
If you're really feeling "brave" and up to a challenge, you could rewire the speakers internally with the cable purchased to wire up the speakers. With a 500 foot spool, you'll have plenty left over to do whatever you want with. Having said that, this is the most economical way to purchase this cable, as it's still cheaper than buying a exactly what you need ( shorter length ) in the equivalent Monster type product.
Hope this helps... Sean
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* Six identical speakers ( three pairs ) will work best if you intend to listen to multi-channel music. This will give you a left front, center front, right front, left rear, center rear and right rear along with an amplified subwoofer. Don't worry about using a "non-center" channel for the center channels as they will probably work better in most installations than the more common horizontal design. If possible, keep all of the speakers at about the same height with the same vertical orientation.
