budget to buy home theater

Blowing more than 50 percent of your client's home theater budget on a big-screen TV.

Don't blow a home theater budget on a super-expensive HD projector, screen, and furniture, while leaving too little for home theater speakers and amplification. In other words, match your high-definition visual image with a similarly high-quality soundscape from a fine home theater surround sound system—otherwise your client will only be disappointed at the jarring disconnect of combining a brilliant picture with lousy sound. Infatuated with the "coolness" factor of flat-panel plasma or LCD displays, too many people spend thousands on their TV display, only to find they haven't left enough money to assemble a high-quality surround sound system. A $999 home-theater-in-a-box will sound pint-sized and out of scale with the impact of the big-screen high-quality video image. If you budget $3,000 or more for an HD front- or rear-projection system, then consider spending the same amount on a 5.1-channel home theater speaker setup in addition to an AV surround receiver or AV processor and amplifiers.