Low budget, just for fun


So I'm lookong to buy my girlfriend a stereo for christmas. Here's the catch: I'm trying to piece together a receiver, cd player and speakers, all used for a little more than the price of a boom box from say, best buy or whetever, but it has to sound way better than said boom box. I found an onkyo receiver ($45), sony dvd / cd player ($45), and some infinity sm 122 floorstanding speakers ($75 with crappy rca receiver, going to offer $50 for just the speakers). Anyways, this is actually pretty fun trying to piece together the best system you can for the least amount of money possible. Anyone else out there do something similar? It would be interesting to have an audio show with a $200 system limit and see who could come up with the best sound!
128x128b_limo
I like a challenge.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Mission-700-Series-Bookshelf-Speakers-/140898449809?

Those were the first speakers I ever bought... over 30 years ago.

Add to that any Tripath amp ($20 to $100) and a cheap DVD player.
eek, those missions look horrible. They must sound fabulous, otherwise they would never have sold any. My first stereo was made by a compny called sound design! If was terrible all they way around.
Fabulous? As I fondly remember, they had muddy bass, a hole in the upper midrange you could fall into and just a hint of highs. Still, much better than the crap in the big box stores.
Hey Rok, I think everyone here tries to piece together the best system they can for the least amount of money possible; it would be stupid to buy a more expensive piece of equipment because it sounded worse. How much $ have you got in your rig? I would be suprised if it were less than $2k or $3k; I highly doubt it's only $250.00 :-)
B_limo,
My most expensive system retailed for exactly $3000. Half of that was the cost of the speakers.