Thinking of buying a Panny industrial plasma to watch High-Def sports/tv shows. Trouble is I have never owned a receiver or speakers. (Not really into music or movies.) TV room is pretty small - roughly 10x10 - so a couple small speakers should suffice. If you are wondering why I am not simply going the cheap HTiB route, bass bothers me and I really don't care about surround sound. Plus, the most important thing to me is clear dialogue, something HTiB does poorly (from what I've read). I did notice on the panasonic web site that they make speakers that connect to the side of the plasma. Would those connect directly to the plasma, or would I still need a receiver? $600 is steep, but looks like I could get them for sub-$300. Or is there a better way to go? Obviously, I am not looking to spend more than a couple hundred bucks.
If you dislike bass and prefer clear dialogue, simply don't buy a subwoofer, a 3.0 setup (left/center/right) setup would be ample, in fact some people just go with a simple L/R 2.0 setup.
My suggestion:
1. Panasonic sa-xr55 pure digital receiver, $230 shipped from Amazon.com
2. Ascend Acoustics CBM-170 speakers, $340/pr. shipped from ascendacoustics.com
or if you want to go cheaper:
3. Athena AS-B1 speakers, $100/pr. from audioadvisor.com
The Ascends are renowned for their crystal clear and natural midrange, which is what you want for dialogue. The Athenas will be ok too, they just tend to favor the treble a bit more.