Tv Stand & surround sound advise?

Howdy guys,

I plan on getting a 50 inch Panasonic plasma for the family this Christmas. I also plan on getting some surround sound & a TV stand.

We tend to play alot of multiplayer games as a family such as little big planet, mod nation racing & warhawk. I would like the TV to be fairly high off the ground. I would go with a wall mount but honestly we may move soon & we live in a really old house that has plaster walls. Our house was built in the 1880's. Thus I don't want 90lbs of massive plasma tearing down part of my house. I really don't want to spend more then $400.00 for a TV stand. $500.00 @ most. I have no idea what to get for surround sound. Any advise?

Thanks,

Joe

A stand with this style might be what you're looking for:

I'm not familiar with any models, so I can't give any advise on anything particular.

As for a surround sound system you need to first set a budget, in my case I usually spend around the same on my audio as I do my TV. Anyways my first bit of advise is to avoid HTiB (Home Theater in a Box) as most of them are overpriced garbage, no other way around that. What I would recommend is buying proper receiver + speakers. If you are on a tight budget the only decent HTiB system that I can recommend comes from Onkyo.

I'm not the biggest on expensive furniture so I went to the Evil Empire and got a stand similar to this for my 55" Bravia.

As for sound, like NVIDIATI stated the best way to get a good surround system is to piece one together (currently working on this) but the more budget friendly way would be to go HTiB. I have an Onkyo HTiB on my 55" but as soon as I have the cash I will be piecing a system together and the HTiB will go to the 40" in my bedroom. Onkyo is pretty much the only way to go for HTiB, you definitely get what you pay for.

Onkyo TX-SR608 - 300

Polk Monitor 40s - 120

Polk CS1 (with promo code) - 60

Polk PSW10 (with promo code) - 80

Polk Monitor 30s x2 - 160

So around $720 for all of that before tax/shipping and speaker wire. There's many different configs you can put together but that was just something quick since I saw deals on Newegg this week for Polk stuff (They do have Black finishes instead of Cherry.) There's also good HTiBs like this Onkyo (Only way to go for HTiB if you want quality.) Just need to know how much you'd want to spend for someone here to put together a config for you.

What's your budget for the surround setup? I would personally go with a pair of floorstanding speakers + receiver if my budget was under $700, although most people would recommend a non-HTIB surround setup.

Hey Thanks Guys!

To tell u the truth I don't need a whole theater speaker system. I was just thinking about 2 speakers I could set up meaning one on each side of the TV. Perhaps it was misleading for me to say surround sound as it has a different meaning for me then obv it does for you guys. :) I just want something simple. Any advise in that category? I didn't realize speaker system would be as much as the TV. I wouldn't want to spend any more then $500.00 on a speaker system.

The Marbella TV stand is nice. I will for sure consider this. I was kind of hoping for something with a bit more storage for Games & DVDS. Anybody else have a suggestion?

What about these? Would either of these be reccomended?

Onkyo HT540 7.1

Onkyo HT 5.1

Sony Bravia HTS

I like this one for TV stands:

Hoping to get something cheaper though. Any reccomendations?

Z-line

What about these? Would either of these be reccomended?

Onkyo HT540 7.1

Onkyo HT 5.1

Sony Bravia HTS

I like this one for TV stands:

Hoping to get something cheaper though. Any reccomendations?

Z-line

savagetofu

Never go cheap, ever. The absolute least I'd recommend is this. Don't touch any other brand of Home Theater in a Box. They all have bad speakers. small magnets, poorly made enclosures, and often they have their own wire built onto the speaker which is also thin. On top of that, the DVD Players/receivers are really really poorly made and sound worse than something you could pick up off ebay for 100 bucks. Theres just so much wrong with them you want to stay away.

The first link was just a speaker package, no receiver. You could pair it with this though. Did notice the speakers are rated at 4ohms instead of the usual 8. Think that just means they require more power to push but not 100% on that.

The one I linked above would be better, the 5300. The subwoofer in the 3300 is passive/non powered and the 5300's is powered, Better speakers, more power in the amp, more room for upgrading speakers in the future.

The sony falls into what I described in the first paragraph.

You could get the receiver I linked in the 2nd paragraph and an order of these Sony floorstanders. Sony has their floorstanders in pairs so you don't need to order 2. Could even add a subwoofer for real bass. The matching Sony sub honestly sounds kinda bad but the Polk sounds really good. Go to monoprice to find speaker wire and other wire too. Even if you got that Onkyo HTiB I recommend some 16AWG wire.