I've wanted to upgrade my "man cave" in the attic for quite some time now, and slowly it's coming together quite nicely.
As it's quite a small room (3 by 4 meters roughly) I didn't want any clutter and I was searching for quite some time for some budget solution which offers a bit of quality nevertheless.
Finally I found the Onkyo HTX-22HDX, a 2.1 system with integrated subwoover/amp with the option to go 5.1. It's got a very small footprint, and the amp is quite decent feature wise. The inner components are almost up to par with full fledged amps.
Though it shows Onkyo had to make some compromises somewhere, the speakers aren't that well suited for music and will serve as rear speakers in the future when I upgrade to JBL One. The subwoover packs quite a punch nevertheless and I hope it profits from some damping.
But, all things considering, it's a very decent purchase, features 3 HDMI inputs (no picture processing, but ample sound processing for those who wish) and a good quality set in this entry level price bracket.
The video part gets done by an Acer H5360BD (the 10 meter HDMI cable being no problem). It's DLP, 720p and after getting a bit used to I hardly notice the rainbow effect anymore. The Acer should be very decent indeed for 3D, and shutter glasses are my birthday gif so I'm very excited to see what GT 5 and Uncharted 3 look like in 3D.
The projector is a real gem, again considering the price, and while it's lacking any lens shift correction options, it's a nice brick shape. Very handy, as I could simply flip it and stick some rubber spacers on the "top" and put it upside down on my Ikea shelve.
Turns out it has the perfect picture size for the viewing distance that way and I enjoy quite a crisp and bright picture with a width of ~170 cm, which is absolutely staggering.
Media is served by the PS3, and although Sony messed up the multimedia capabilities seriously by the 4.x firmware update, my NAS stored media and live (SD) TV coming from a linux powered Sat STB running enigma 2 are available and everything works very well.
So in conclusion:
- for the price and size a very solid subwoover/amp, which will profit from better front speakers in the near future (269 )
- a surprisingly good and handy DLP projector, if you can adjust to the RBE - which I could with no problem at all - and which should be really performing well in 3D (549 )
- a nice 180 cm width canvas (gain factor 1.2) - bought used/defect and will get modded some time (30 )
Two years ago I'd never thought I get all this for under 1000 and though I made some compromises in the audio department, it's been money very well spent. I'd whole-heartedly recommend this entry level setup as it packs quite some bang for the buck.
Two pictures included, you'll notice the wiring is only temporary and the furniture not quite in place yet. Been too busy enjoying my new toys.
The projector blends in nicely with the wall color - pure coincidence.
Spa 24 hours live - on the big screen quite a treat.