VQracer

needs to be 5.1 and have DTS

max'n out

harmon/kardon I like there products I'm not sure they have that but they prob do check into them.

PrinzII

iTrader: (2)

Yamaha (My personal favorite)
HTR-5250
RX-V2095
RX-V2092
RX-V3000 (New Model)

Denon
AVR-3801
AVR-2801

Outlaw Audio

NAD
T777

Nakamichi

Rotel (Don't sleep on this one)

mrb23

you gotta figure out how much you want to spend. You can spend from $250 to $5000 or more. Audioreview.com has reviews of lots of stuff. I like my Marantz SR-8000, which I got for around $800 something a while back. Does DTS/Dolby Digital/5.1, etc...

speakers matter too, don't forget that the best receiver with crappy speakers ain't gonna turn out so great.

mattattax

audioreview.com is a great site to get an idea of what you're looking for--before deciding you should decide what it will mostly be used for (music or home theater) b/c I have the Onkyo TXDS787 and it sound outstanding for movies but it sounds like $hit for music

MAXEJA

i built i thearter down in my basement, used bose suround sound speakers at the time the best sony reciever you could by, DTS AC3 5.1 all the connections 2 TV DVD CD were all run off fiber optics. ITs a pretty sweet system, however if i was to do it over. I would prob look into onkyo, it did not make my budget at the time but would be a little better for movies. The sony is not that bad, there are just other reicevers out there that are better.

PrinzII

iTrader: (2)

To back up what mrb23 said, speakers can make or break a system, but there are other factors involved. You have to figure out the sound absorbing materials in the room as well as the physical dimensions of the room itself before you can decide on a good receiver/speaker combination.

Most Sub/Sat Systems tend to sound better in a smaller room. IMHO, the best two I can think of are Velodyne and Energy's Take 5. Bose Acoustimass is good for mids and highs but for bass, it's a .

Floor standing speakers with an active subwoofer are the best way to go. But it depends on how much room you are playing with and where you place the speakers/sub. IMHO, B&W is very good (but pricey). Others I would consider are NHT, Paradigm, Mirage, Klipsch, Polk, Boston Acoustics, Infinity's Composition Series...to name a few.

mrb23

I got some B&W's all around, their 303 series are pretty cheap $300 a pair and it works plenty well for what I need.

Their expensive stuff goes up to like $60k if I remember right.

philpoe

iTrader: (4)

Start off at www.audioreview.com and go to the hall of fame.
If money _is_ an object, go to www.ubid.com and/or www.onsale.com and see what's for sale, then check it out at www.audioreview.com to see if it's worth the $$.

IMHO, a lot of units with decent but not great scores at audioreview are the result of some initial firmware bug that has since been resolved and the manufacturer has to dump the repaired units on sites like ubid and onsale.

A trip to a Tweeter or Circuit City store to see what's on clearance/open box is always worth a trip as well

tbmax

I would reccomend Onkyo,
I recently purchased an Onkyo TX-DS787
It is rated at i think 6x105 or 130wrms and it rocks!
it has 6.1 dolby and every THX and Dolby you can imagine!
I am powering the polk rm7500 satelites and the polk psw650 subwoofer
my rear center channel is klipsch audio
Good luck

Matt93SE

iTrader: (44)

I definitely recommend the Denon stuff.. for someone who's on a budget but still want excellent sound, their stuff is hard to beat. quite a bit of power, and good clean sound. (plus it's easy to use!)

for a list of what I've got in my room, check out the boring little writeup I did on it..
http://www.ee.utulsa.edu/~mblehm/pics/home_stereo/