A colleague wants to find speakers for a 5.1 system, and he asked me for some advice. Although I want to steer him to Outlaw, he only wants to spend between $1500 and $2000 all in for 5 speakers and a subwoofer (and I know he wants to stay closer to $1500). I know this is probably a tough question for the Outlaws, but I thought I would check with the Outlaws to try to help my colleague find the best speakers for the buck based on the following additional criteria:

1. Legitimate and reputable internet source is fine, although an authorized dealer is not a requirement (and this is a side question how can (or why is) a legitimate and reputable source not necessarily an authorized dealer?).

2. No time nor inclination to audition speakers (we will trust the Outlaws).

3. 2 fronts must be in-wall, center must be a bookshelf, 2 back surrounds must be in-wall, and a subwoofer (I believe the fronts and surrounds should match cosmetically, but the fronts can (should) be better quality than the surrounds and the fronts should be fairly matched with the center).

4. The system will be powered by a receiver (I am trying to talk him into the Newcastle P-965 currently offered by Outlaw with a 7075, but he is balking a little on the price and "old" technology!---he definitely is not an audiophile and does not appreciate (at least not yet) that the P-965 with a correct BlueRay player will be able to give him all the sound options possible even with the "old" technoligy).

That is about it. Thanks in advance.

Ed.

There are probably a number of answers to this question, although the in-wall wrinkle does alter the equation a bit. Lots of folks are offering in-walls these days, both traditional companies (Paradigm, B&W, ...) and internet direct (Axiom, HSU, Aperion).

I have a co-worker who has partially built a budget-conscious (or "budget-centric" considering some of the pressures he faced) system. He has been very fond of both my old Paradigm speakers and my current Outlaw speakers, but neither fit his budget at all. When we were working on it a couple years ago, I suggested HSU Research to him, and that's what he ended up getting for his fronts and center. The HB-1's and HC-1 turned out to be quite nice speakers, and I think they are a very good value. HSU now has an in-wall speaker, so he could get (4) of their in-walls and a single bookshelf (which they offer individually) or center speaker. They'd all be well matched that way, and the price would be anywhere from $720 to $750 plus shipping for four in-walls and a single bookshelf. I haven't heard the in-wall, but if it sounds comparable to the bookshelves it's a pretty solid performer for the price. Toss in an Outlaw or HSU sub for $400 to $700 and he's still under $1500 for all six speakers.

Another factor with the HSU speakers: they are pretty efficient, so powering them from a good receiver is not much of a compromise. If he split his order between Outlaw (sub) and HSU (speakers), he could get the Marantz SR5005 at the same time he ordered his sub and have his whole audio side done with those two purchases.