Having lived in an apartment with a 5.1 system a few years back, I'd say the first place you can save some money is on the sub. You will be missing a good bit of punch (especially if you are going to get 'space friendly' speakers) but your neighbors aren't going to let you get by with a 400watt sub. At least none of the neighbors I've ever seen. . .

Check out Gonk's guide to home theater basics for terms and other info. gonk's info (woo-hoo, it worked!!!). There should be a lot of good general info there.

Pending budget, it is best to spend good money on the speakers. Find a local hi-fi shop and check them out, even if items there are out of the planned budget. Its good to see what is out there before deciding what is good enough for your system. I like B&W's DM303 speaker for a lower cost system. Paradigm is probably going to be the next speaker I buy for my 'big' system.

The best advice I can give is to listen to a lot of different pieces and combinations to find out what satisfies your particular taste. There is no single 'correct' solution. Finally, the radio shack sound level meter (analog approx. $30) helps during set-up and for future comparisons. Many times, you can get better results from a well set-up system costing less than a poorly set-up system of expensive pieces.

Best of luck.

S.


[This message has been edited by MrSandman (edited February 28, 2002).]