Onkyo 650 or Receiver and 2 speakers?

 

I have been thinking about getting a HTIB for a long time, originally wanting the Kenwood 503, then 544, then 505 and Onkyo 650. I only name names so that people know what I am in the market in. Now that I'm finally at a point to buy, I am second guessing once again. Do you think spending $500 on a receiver and two speakers, with the aim of upgrading down the road, is better than a $500 HTIB? What is the best receiver/2 speaker combo for $500?
 

po
Best receiver/2 speaker combo for $500:

Onkyo SR500 receiver : $300
2 Paradigm Titans : $220

The Titans are simply AWESOME. Best sound for the money. Each Titan has a 6.5 inch polypropylene driver with a DIE CAST basket. Die cast baskets are absolutely unheard of in this price range. They also use a ceramic/metal dome tweeter which is also rare on speakers this cheap. They have quality 5 way binding posts. They have a very flat freq response down to 50Hz. You won't even miss your subwoofer.

Go to www.paradigm.ca to find out more about Paradigm. Paradigm rules.
-po
 

po
BTW, I have an Onkyo HT-S650 which includes the SR500 receiver. When it is time to upgrade, I'm going to buy a set of Paradigms. I bought the HTIB to I could get in the HT game (and it sounds darn good). Now I have full surround sound and room to upgrade. When my kids get older so they aren't constantly touching my stuff, I'm going to get 5 Paradigms.
 

Anonymous
I'm in the exact same situation as Simply ... and I've been thinking of giving up the idea of HT650 and instead build up slowly so that I future-proof a bit.

My only concern with getting the SR500 is that it has no component video. If I do get a HDTV in the future, I don't want to have to buy a new receiver at the same time.

I see that the JBL Propack II has s and component video and its price is falling fast.

Any advice much appreciated.
 

Muto
Anonymous ... not having component video is only an issue if either you're lazy or you really don't have the emotional discipline to handle using more than one remote. I use five remotes and run everything direct into my HDTV ... running video through the receiver degrades the video signal a bit (sometimes noticeably, other times not so much...). Its all about tradeoffs...
 

ken
The HTIB is apartment theater or office theater in a box - not the best solution, you are really giving up on the speakers. Go with an upper level on the onkyo or denon 2802 (if you can find one they go for around $500: Dolby 6.1, component, multi zone). Mate them with paradigms, athena's, or klipsch, and velodyne, you'll have a killer system. Just don't buy all the speakers at once.
 

Anonymous
Which is the better receiver for 2 channel listening to music, the TXSR500 or the HTR500 that comes with the 650 system. Also will the TXSR500 drive the SKS-HT500 speakers which on paper are very inefficient. Room is 20" x 14".

Thanks
 

Have you ever heard that a pair of bookshelf sized speakers can go all the way down to 20HZ and all the way up to 30KHZ? Forget the big sub. Guess how much it would cost.
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