Help a complete vidio idiot

I would recommend used equipment right here at Audiogon. The only thing I will say though is I have found LATLEY that the feedback on individuals is not always safe. I have built 3 systems in the last 4 or 5 years directly from this site. I have had some problems in the past with transactions gone bad. I am not sure what is happening to this site but, it is certainly becoming a concern of mine. I think that used equipment is the only way to go in terms of getting the most from your dollar. Never go to anyplace like Best Buy or Circuit shitty. Let someone else take the hit of paying top dollar and you get it later for about half price. But, I think you really have to pay attention to who the seller is and maybe ask a few questions to previous buyers. Make sure the previous buyer and seller aren't homeys. I don't understand why AG has a problem with people exposing bad sellers on this site. They certainly don't have a problem letting people post negative feedback with out validation. If someone can just go and leave negative feedback on another person without validation, then why can't we just go ahead and post bad sellers and bad buyers in the forums?

Almost forgot. The most overlooked and possibly the most important. The room itself. You could easily spend several thousand dollars on equipment and if your room is not right, you might has well bought a Kenwood Home Theater in a box set up. Do your homework if you are serious. If you are just going to throw together a system for the kids in a exsisting living room or something like that, then don't worry about it too much.

Pick up some of the home theater mags and start reading. You'd be surprised at what is availible in a high-def ready big screens under $3000. The present issue of The Perfect Vision has their best buys in DVD players at each price/feature level. Finding quality separates and nice speakers under $4-6000 in total is quite possible these days. Such as an Outlaw(outlawaudio.com) pre/pro and amp and a set of Rockets by Onix is just one of many possibilities. Of course used here on audiogon greatly expands the choices.

There are also a number of websites devoteed to HT. avsforum.com and hometheaterforum.com are couple to start with. Also, some of the HT magazines have their own forums you can find from their homepage.

More thoughts...if this is really for the kids. I'd use the KISS principle and keep it simple depending on your kids ages. Get a rear projection big screen HDTV, about $3k, and a reciever. The Outlaw 1050($499) is frequently mentioned as user friendly reciever. Unless, you have a really large room I'd suggest Ascend Acoustics 170's or Totem Dreamcatchers, go to their sites and read the reviews, both sell around $1500 with a sub. Pick a progessive scan DVD player of your feature/price choice and you should have a quite nice, no fuss, kid friendly set up for under $6k.

dear newbie

thanks for the info. I am just starting to figure this out. I am trying to figure out if I should keep this as simple as possible or go slightly more high end. It really is for the kids but I may end up liking it too (hard to know). Outlaw seems to have very good reviews. I thought about the separtates to get some more power and options.

gary