Phoenix Gold Phorum

We have just sold are house and will be moving into are new one that will be finished sept.7 2550sf not the biggest but it has seperate living and family rooms, I had the family room walled off and double french doors installed, room is roughly 16x20, claiming it as my home theater room. My thoughts are at least a 50" plasma, leaning towards Samsung, they also have a 63", and a decent 5.1 or 7.1 channel system. Looking for any other ideas on size,make,model for tv and audio. I seem to be stuck on the Samsung, #of hdmi inputs and other features seem to fit my needs. also what is a good viewing distance?
Builder is giving us $5000 to use at rcwilleys,( not moving their houses because of market.) a good little promotion that i will use.

I dont know much about the TV, but I would suggest checking out Onix Rockets (http://www.av123.com) for speakers. The 760's can be purchased for 1500 a pair, but you can find the older 750 used for around $600. In fact, I just saw this post: Rosewood 750s Signatures - one has a nick at the top - $650 for the pair add $20 for risers

Best thing to do is go onto the forum (http://www.av123forum.com) they have and find someone in your area to demo them. I know that there is a listing of everyone that will demo them for you. I just cant find it right now.

I'll second the Onix speakers. They seem to be a reputiable smaller company.

As for tv's, go out to a big box store, and just watch them. Get the one that looks the best to you.

Samsung is good, compare it to a Hitachi for picture and features either are a great set. Mitsubishi is my first pick however but is more $$.

For a receiver I suggest Yamaha first $ for $ for performance, however if you want to spend more on features look into Denon or even the Kenwood-Sovereign line.

Speakers? are you going in wall, on wall, or free-standing? I have to put in a vote for the Audiosource/PG-IH line, great products at a great price.

For recievers on the less expensive side check out Onkyo.

receivers of my choice..... yamaha,denon
both these names produces champs all the time....
any hi-fi/HT award edition magazines will verify this....
marantz and onkyo are quite good too.

Was leaning towards onkyo, will be going with free standing speakers, and adding a second powered sub. before making final decision I will look at Hitachi side by side with the Samsung

Look at it like this, I got a used Onkyo reciever off eBay for around $150, 2 brand new Polk R50's for $200, and a brand new Sony 45" HDTV (CRT of course) for $1500.

If I wanted to add another $500 I could get matching surrounds and Center, probably a matching self powered sub too if I looked hard enough.

Just like car audio, it's all in where and how hard you look for good deals. brand name need not be to big a factor.

don't know if it's on the us market, but systemaudio are great speakers that don't take up that much space (oh yeah - they're danish)