Audio Receiver Help

[Chai Knees]

I need a receiver, the sooner the better. I know which speakers I'll be running. I'm on a $3500 budget for the receiver and I need something that will be able to handle 1200 watts all together. Please let me know of any suggestions you may have. Thanks!

[rbinck]

Is this going to be a 5.1 or 7.1 system? What are the speakers? Powered sub?

[Chai Knees]

This is a 7.1 system Onkyo HTS5200. 290watt powered sub.

[bluextatic]

Why are you spending $3500.00 on a receiver to run $200.00 worth of speakers? The system that you mentioned is a home theater in a box. I looked it up at crutchfield and the whole setup costs $499.95. What is wrong with the receiver that came with the HTIB?

[Chai Knees]

I accidentally dropped the receiver down a couple of flights of stairs, after I threw the receipt away.. idiotic i know.

[bluextatic]

Ouch, that hurts!!

If you are going to keep the speakers that you have, you certainly do not need a three thousand dollar receiver to power them.
If you are going with the Onkyo speakers, then I would just spend about a thousand on a receiver for now. There are many very nice ones out there for this price range, depending on which brand you prefer and what you want to do with it. I would spend the rest on some nice speakers from Axiom, Onyx Rocket, or one of the other good online brands. Now days, if I was going to spend $3500.00 just for a receiver, I would go with seperates and get much better sound, or at least get a nice receiver and some nice speakers.