system matching help

Streetman, I agree with the suggestions to find a dealer willing to help you, and, to add to that, one trying not to sell you. I would gather all the advice from Audiogon about makes and models and use it to make wise decisions based on what sounds good to you. Advice from this thread and from any dealer should be used as a guide. Find a dealer who will let you audition gear at your home. There are so many choices to recommend that you may spend forever trying to purchase instead of actually purchasing. I realize the desire to gather as much info as possible from people who tell you what to get or tell you what is good, but you need to have the attitude that you don't care about someone elses opinion if the music coming from a system makes you smile. Of course, this is my opinion. Rayd

Have to agree with Rayd. Unless you want to make audio an avocation find a good dealer with which to work. The alternative is to spend a tremendous amount of time educating yourself on the market by reading everything in sight and auditioning like a mad man.

Though not into HT (and would most assuredly steer you in the wrong direction) I do have a couple of suggestions. First, decide on a firm budget. Deduct 25% of it and use the remainder when talking to dealers. Why? Because it is inevitable you will spend more than expected on cables, tweaks, etc. The dealer, if he has any sales aptitude at all, will try to upsell you to better equipment, too. That is not necessarily a bad thing, either! Remember to consider room treatments in the price. At a minimum front and side wall treatments of some sort. They can make a huge difference.

Other than that, good luck and have a blast. BTW, let us know where you are located as someone here may have a dealer to suggest as a starting point.

to follow-up a point sean made, my first audio purchase was a pair of klipsch's kg4 speakers in 1987 (i grew up in a k-horn household). to date, those could be my best purchase. great, versitile, fun, engaging speakers. within the last 5 or so years, (1) my father has begun using his k-horns in a solid/price efficent ht set-up (he added a klipsch center channel and in-wall klipsch rears), (2) a buddy has built his ht system around a pair of klipsch 4.2's, which he origionally purchased for pop music, and (3) my younger sister bought a used pair of forte's, at first almost exclusively for grunge rock, and now...part of her ht set-up. in short, they won't be the last word in imaging or detail, but they're great versitile products that are fun to listen to.