I want to buy a new home theater receiver to go along with my new Plasma Television. I’ve finally, after a very long process, decided on the Onkyo 876 
. One problem, I have not yet picked out the speakers to go along with it. Who knew how hard it is to pick speakers. Seriously, there are way too many choices when it comes to speakers. Everybody has a different opinion, and everyone’s advice is the same. Speakers are an individual choice and you have to hear them for yourself. The problem is that most of the better speakers do not have show rooms where you can go hear them. So since I have not quite yet picked out the speakers to go along with the receiver, I have not jumped on my purchase.
Now this receiver is available on Amazon
, which is where I want to buy it. However, it has not been in stock for the past month. Earlier this week, it finally came into stock. However, since I have not yet been able to pick out speakers, I have not ordered it yet. I logged in this morning only to discover it is already out of stock! Needless to say, I am a little frustrated, but I guess I should have just made up my mind about what speaker to get. Just goes to show, if you know what you want, you should just go after it.
About terrence
I'm a guy in his 30's who likes to write about life, money, and work. I went to a great school and got a great job doing something I really enjoy, leading smart people build great things. I like to give advice to people so I can help them achieve whatever it is they want out of life.
We have an Onkyo receiver.
I know Joey has said it’s a good idea to go to the Great Indoors store to check out TVs because they have a whole closed off room for them or something. Perhaps they also have speakers there as well? I’ll ask Joey.
You should also take a look at the Yamaha V663 and V863 receivers. The 663 only has 2 hdmi inputs, but is significantly cheaper than the V863. I’m not super familar with that particular receiver, but I suspect that the 863 is probably equivlent to that. (actually, on investigation, the equivlent yamaha is probably the RX V3900). (as another aside, why do you need such a beefy receiver? are you planning on hooking it up to 2 TVs? do you really think you need more than 3 HDMI inputs? Or is there just some killer feature that I’m not seeing that you’d want?)
With regards to speakers, I’ve got 2 different sets. One was the packaged onkyo speakers, which are kind of ugly, but do the job ok. The other set, which I bought separately for Carrie’s was a JBL like (arena, monitor, voice, and some other funky names. all of them are gray). They do a fine job, but you might also look at the polk monitor series. I think it’s perhaps a bit out of date, but you might be able to score some deals on them if they are. They also look a lot nicer than the JBL series. Here’s the polk speaker on amazon. The JBL series is not being manufactured anymore, and I’d recommend against a boxed receiver and speaker set, as they seemed to not be paired well usually. All of these are in the mid to low end. I have no idea what to do for higher end speakers, but I don’t think I’d get them either.
With regards to where you can listen to them, best buy has a show room, but I didn’t feel like it was a super great representation. Still, better than nothing. You’d probably need to find a best buy with a Magnolia center, but the one in burbank has that.
wow, thanks for the detailed comment.
As for the feature I really want, I really want Audyssey Dynamic Volume. it is only available on this class of receivers from Onkyo and on Denon receivers. My big problem with the Denon’s are the lack of HDMI. I want at least 4. The Denon 2309 has it, but the Onkyo beats it out in a few other categories including a better amp, one more HDMI (although I don’t think I need 5), and a few nice little features.
WRT speakers, I really want to buy some floorstanders. I think they probably provide the best bang for the buck and if you can believe it the future wife thinks that they actually look better than setting the bookshelf speakers next to the TV. I’m looking at mostly JBL, Polk, and Definitive, but the sheer number of choices in speakers is really overwhelming.
Thanks for all the advice.
Let me know what you decide to go with, it’ll save me a lot of time on my decision making process. As a reward, I’ll click through your link to Amazon so you can get the referral fee.
Sorry to hear. You have to order when you decide. Don’t wait too long.
I miss the goods all the time on overstock.com, especially furniture and jewelry. Do yourself a favor and just order what you want the minute you see the price you want to pay. You are not the only one eying that receiver, new bedroom set, or bar stools.