Point me in the right direction

For the responces I'm thankful. I only have an Onkyo TX 902 tuning amp that I may consider using if possible. My emphasis is mainly listening to music(although my wife and daughter rents/buys on the minimum 15 DVD's monthly so I may have to consider more). $500 seems to be a more realistic budget right now. I know DVD players are capable of playing CD's but the aforementioned Onkyo is not A/V so I may be limited there. I will do more research here and maybe other sites others mentioned here. Thanks all will be listening for more advice.

I should have included this in my last post but didn't think of it at the time of writing. I would guess speakers are the most important piece to focus on chewing up most of the $500 budget. If I'm correct with that assumption I would guess that would limit my choices in a CD or DVD player.

Bigken,

If the Onkyo is still working, there is no reason why you can't still use it. You can simply buy a DVD player and connect it via L&R RCA analog outputs to any of the available inputs on the Onkyo (like CD). You would need to go into the menu of the DVD player and set it up for "stereo" or "PCM" output. This will force the DVD to output all sound through the L&R stereo outputs of the DVD player. So, for CDs it would play as a normal CD player. For DVDs, it would down-mix the 5.1 channel outputs to a 2-channel output.

So, if you plan to use the Onkyo, you would only need to buy a DVD/CD player and 2 speakers for now.

If you plan to stick to your $500 budget, I would suggest looking for a pair of floorstanding speakers in the $400 range and then buying a $100 (or less) DVD player. I've read plenty of reviews from folks that were very happy with the audio from a sub-$100 DVD player. I'm not one of those folks, but I'm the obsessive type!

For floorstanders, I know you can get the Athena 2.2 for $400 from www.audioadvisor.com and they come with a 30 day return policy. I would also suggest asking for $400 speaker recommendations in a new post. List the equipment you plan to use, i.e. Onkyo TX-902 and an inexpensive DVD player. You might get some great suggestions.....

Enjoy,

TIC

Thanks Reubent, good advice as was the other posts on this thread. Now I have to research some speakers and a player and a few things I'm contemplating(which I can likely find thru doing DD as Bartokfan suggest). $500 is the budget I'm sticking to so I like the direction you pointed out.

Pioneer DVD 563A or 578A can be found for around $100...$400 left for speakers and cables. I have a Pioneer 563A in my hometheater system...a great unit at $100, IMO.

Dave