Design an entire system for $800? ?

Have him audition a Yamaha Piano Black mini system. If the room is not too large and if he does not blast music it should fill the bill.

Another option (for higher volume playback) would be the integrated amp/CD player (all in one unit) by NAD and a pair of Polk Audio RT-25's, plus cheap $99 stands for the speakers. The NAD is often discounted online (new) and the Polk's go on sale @ the chain stores.

Too bad that he is not into seeking/searching bargains as I recently picked up a Bottlehead Foreplay/Paramours combo for $400 that sings with some of the Japanese single driver speakers that I sourced from the local thrifts (average $5/pr). With a nice discontinued Sony CD/SACD player and DIY Radio Shack magnet wire IC's/speaker cable such a system would come in @ $200 under budget (enough left over for a DIY Ikea Lack equipment rack and a discounted/new Monster HTS-2000 power conditioner).

Perhaps you could put together such a system for him?

Cambridge Audio A300 integrated amp ($250.), Cambridge Audio D300SE CD player ($300.), Sound Dynamics RTS-3 speakers ($198.), Audioquest sidewinder interconnect .5 mtr ($25), straightwire rhythm speaker cable ($48.) 8 ft pair. Total $821.00 all brand new from Audio Advisor, if you buy the demo's you will be under $800. I'm not pushing AA, I was just to lazy to shop around more. You might be able to do better if you look hard. This didn't look bad to me for the money but I'm sure alot of the other guys on this site could recommend even better. I would recommend you buy used, you would get much more bang for the buck IMHO. Tom G

I concur with buying used, especilly just starting. Honestly, you just can't kill some of this stuff, it's so well made. But in keeping with the original post:

Sound Dynamics RTS3's can regularly be had for $150 new, or demo - AA is a big seller of these, but they're widely available and you can buy new elsewhere for their demo price.
AA is a good place to shop though, given their 30-day guarantee.

Personally, I'd take a wide detour around the Cambridge stuff. The CD player has had lots of DOAs and quality problems reported on the net, and my personal experience was no excpetion - would rather suggest Marantz CD5000, which is the base unit that is modded into the Ah! Njoe Tjoeb tubed CD player ($599 or so MSRP). That unit costs only $219 NEW (3yr. warranty) from The Stereo Trading Outlet (www.tsto.com), and reads CD-R and CD-RW. I also owned the Cambridge A300 integrated for just one day, and sold it immediately in favor of a $130 TEAC AG-780 stereo receiver (www.partsxpress.com). The Cambridge integrated sounded harsh (and it was even broken-in), construction was not impressive either, even at the price. Lots of fans out there, though, I'm just not one of them. Not that the Teac is anything special, it was at least surprisingly well-built and had some power.

Audioquest Type 4 (4+) bulk speaker cable does well in cost-conscious systems, I recommend bulk purchase from ozenterprises at Ebay - buy on the Canadian dollar, and this guy is easy to work with. Radio shack speaker terminations can be OK for very little $. I recommend using heat-shrink tubing and a heat gun though to dress the cable ends. If that's too much trouble, and probably is, www.hcmaudio.com sells pre-terminated Audioquest cables for a good price.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll have all sorts of suggestions and opinions to wade through in no time! I just went through setting up a couple systems for low cost like you mentioned - it takes a little more work, but can certainly be done with great results if you try hard enoguh!

Sony DVP-NS500v for $150.
Refurbished NAD C350 amp from Spearit Sound for $330.
Sound Dynamics speakers for $150 from Stereo Trading Post.
Entry level Monster cables from wherever.