Home Audio Advice, opinions

[hoamic11]

So i'm starting to take a look into getting a starter sized/entry level home theatre setup that isn't an all in one box unit. The space is for a bonus room about 17'x13'ish. Nothing to huge or expensive, a good one can wait until i get my own house.

anyways here what i'm considering,

Receiver :
Yamaha RXV-659 or Denon AVR-1707

Speakers:
Looking at polk audio equipment, what do you guys think of them?

Towers: Monitor60
Centre: CS2
Rears: Monitor 30 or 40
Sub: PSW10, 50wrms/100max, it's not to powerful but read it's not to bad, pretty musical

I already have a set of yamaha bookshelfs that i could use as the rears instead of buying the polk rears. My only other thoughs have been to gettting a set of Energy speakers, or if i can find psb, however the psb will be more. another option for a different sound is looking into JBL, but again price may be the issue. I have a friend who works for visions in regina, so i'll be gettting a pretty good deal on the speakers if i go with the polks.

any opinions are appeciated, thx

Edit:

does anyone have personal experience with polk audio?

[phreezee]

Just personal preference/experience, but I find Yamaha receivers to be too bright. It's personal preference, but most will agree that the warmer Denon is the way to go.

[hoamic11]

ok, the denon i've been told delivers cleaner power as well, has less output, and is also cheaper than yamaha by alittle bit for what i was quoted

also it really depends on the speakers too,b/c of effeicency, some speakers don't require tons of power.

there wasn't any reviews i could find on the denon 1707 exactly but the higher end one for the 2807 got good reviews from cnet.

the yamaha got a rating of 7.7 from cnet.

[heinz256]

sorry to high jack but what do you guys think of harmon kardons?

[redline]

I am not sure on the lower end models but i would only buy an amp that had HDMI in/out. even though it will only be 1.2 it is way better then comp/fibre.

I have a 2803 denon and 4306 and they are both great amps. I have not had any problems with them.

[hoamic11]

what do you mean by 1.2?

i've heard that both are great brands, and all, i mean i even considered a marantz unit, but again price comes in, right now for me b/c it's my first system i'm not trying to spend too much, i was looking at basically max $600ish for the receiver. I'm not sure how much a 2800 series is but i'm sure it's much more.

As for HDMI, i don't really have anything to use with it yet, so i'm ok with not having it for now

[Annoyingrob]

I have an old Yamaha receiver (RXV-620 IIRC), and quite like it. It has a lot of small features like time alignment that I like.

The one thing it didn't have was preouts, so I had to make my own

[hifiguy]

I have the energy bookshelf speaker set, (take5) and really enjoy the sound. I also have a large floor standing polk system which fills a room slightly larger than the one you have described. Also pretty good. However, for your budget, since you are not investing in a substantial sized receiver or amplifier, I would lean towards the energy/yamaha combination. I believe you won't be able to beat the price to performance ratio. The only thing I have listen to that was decent for the dollar was the mirage omnisat combination which I think Soundsaround blew out for $500. 5 satelite speakers and a sub at that price is pretty decent. I recall a pioneer receiver pushing the gear, also decent in a similar sized bonus room. Have fun shopping.