Hi SB
1st of all, welcome to HFV. Let me try to help you out with your queries.
30k is a budget that even I had when I bought my HT components recently.
Onkyo HT-S3300 --> Have not had a demo on this, but had a look at the specs on the US website. Specs are impressive, with a nice receiver sporting 4 HDMI 1.4 inputs, 1 HDMI output, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA decoding etc. So in other words it's future proof. However, the subwoofer is a passive one (meaning, it's not separately powered and level has to be controlled only from the receiver). A powered subwoofer is always better even if it's just 100 watts RMS. Speakers in this system may not be upto the mark either. However, this can be overcome by getting better front and centre speakers some time later when you can afford it.
As for the Denon DHT-390XP, the package is good but the receiver is very basic. Only 2 HDMI inputs, does not support HD audio decoding etc. Subwoofer in this model is huge but does not produce very impressive bass. I had a demo on this model at Reliance Digital here in Chennai and was not very impressed. They had a deal for 34k, including a Pioneer DV 220 DVD player. Croma had the same model for 29k without the DVD player.
Onkyo HTIBs are generally good value for money and are nice for movies.
If you are ready to look at other options, you can check out what I bought recently for around the same budget.
I actually had a budget of 25k total but stretched it to 30k. I picked up a used 2007 model Yamaha RX-V459 receiver (non-HDMI model but good one, 90W RMS per ch, 6.1 config) for 9.5k. Got it from a used hifi components dealer from whom I've purchased a few times before for myself and my friends. They've been in this business for more than 10 years and are trustworthy to do business with.
Next for the speakers, I considered models like a satellite package from Yamaha (NS-P110, grey, 100W/ch RMS with powered subwoofer), Wharfedale MovieStar 70+ system (5 bigger-than-satellite speakers with a powered subwoofer) etc. The Yamaha set at the Yamaha Music Square here was 12k while I found the same package for 8k on Ebay India brand new. The Wharfedale set was 33k brand new (best price 30k) while a used demo set was offered to me for 23k.
Apart from these, I had a long-time desire to get floorstanders and decided to use this opportunity to check out options.
The Yamaha 3-way floorstanders NS-8390 were offered for 14k at the Yamaha Music Square while the centre/surround package NS-P60 was offered for 10k. So the total came to 24k for a brand new set. However I contacted another known hifi store in Chennai and managed to crack a deal with him for 19k total for the speakers.
I must say these speakers are excellent. The speakers are quite powerful and produce good bass. Mid-range and treble are very good too. Centre and surround speakers are big and dialogues are very clear since the centre speaker uses 2 mid-bass drivers and a tweeter. I have set up everything at my place and even wall mounted the surround speakers which look more like mini bookshelves.
I plan to add a subwoofer after a month or two, but for the moment am delighted with the way the speakers are performing. I am listening only to audio CDs, MP3s and DTS CDs now since the next big item on our purchase list is a 50 inch plasma.
So this entire setup cost me less than 30k, since I went for a used AV receiver. If you're very particular about getting only a new AVR and speakers, then I guess you don't have much of a choice for a 30k budget and would have to restrict yourself to the Onkyo or Denon HTIBs. Other cheaper HTIBs from Samsung, LG, Sony etc would not have a separate receiver and would have an integrated DVD player/amplifier unit with a passive subwoofer.
If you can stretch your budget to 40k or more, then lot more options are available. I am sure the others here can contribute with some info on those.
Hope that helps!!
Warm regards,
Venkat
) google it !!
