The best home theater systems you can buy

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The Insider Pick:

• A great home theater system can seriously transform your living room into a moving-watching center. Of all the sets we researched, the Onkyo HT-S7800 offers the best value for money and sound quality.

TVs may have built-in speakers, but getting a home theater system can seriously improve the quality of those family movie nights. Not only will the sound be louder, but it will sound much better with a lot more emphasis on the lower-end of that audio. The multiple speakers in the room will make whatever you’re watching feel much more immersive, too.

Thankfully, while there was once a time when buying a home theater system meant spending thousands of dollars, these days you can get a decent system for only a few hundred bucks. Still, if you’ve decided you want to invest in a home theater system, you’ll want to consider a number of different things.

For starters, you’ll want to decide whether or not you’re looking for an all-in-one home theater system, called a Home-Theater-In-A-Box (HTIB), or if you want to buy the speakers and the receiver separately. That's what audiophiles sometimes do to make sure they get the best quality for each aspect of the system. For this article, we’re only talking about HTIB systems, because it gets a little more complicated when we’re considering separate speakers, receivers, and other components.

Next up, you’ll want to think about the inputs and outputs on the receiver. If you’re buying a HTIB, it’ll offer all the outputs to the speakers that you’ll need for that system, but inputs may be a different story. You might, for example, have multiple HDMI-enabled devices you’ll want to use, or you might want to use analog inputs.

Thirdly, you’ll want to think about how the different components of the system speak to each other. The cheaper systems will likely use cables, and you’ll want to manage those cables around the room. Some systems, however, stick to wireless solutions, so you won’t have to worry about cable management. Some systems also allow you to wirelessly connect from your phone, so you’ll be able to do things like play music from your phone on your home theater system.

Whether you’re looking for a basic cabled home theater system, or a full wireless speaker system with all the bells and whistles, this list should have the right system for you.

Although the Onkyo HT-S7800 is our top pick, for various reasons laid out in the slides below, you should also consider the Yamaha YHT-5920UBL, the Samsung HT-J4500, the Enclave Audio CineHome HD, and the Bose LifeStyle 650.

The best home theater system overall

Onkyo/Facebook

Why you'll love it: The Onkyo HT-S7800 isn’t just good-looking, it also sounds great and features a receiver that supports 4K video and up to eight HDMI inputs.

Onkyo has been a pretty serious name in the home theater business for quite some time now, and its home theater systems always offer excellent quality for a very decent price. The Onkyo HT-S7800 is no different. In fact, we think it’s the best home theater system for the price.

There are a number of reasons why this is such an excellent home theater system, but perhaps the most important is that the speakers sound great. That’s good news. Often HTIB’s have sub-par speakers that simply don’t perform as well as they could. The system also has a wealth of inputs and outputs on the back of the receiver. You’ll get a whopping eight HDMI inputs, and there’s also a ton of analog inputs and outputs. The receiver will even support 4K, which is great future-proofing.

While the standard system is 5.1, meaning you’ll get five speakers and one subwoofer, it supports up to seven speakers and two subwoofers, so you can easily expand upon the system if you so choose. Last but not least, the system does have some wireless capabilities, so you can connect your phone or tablet to the system to play your favorite tunes when you’re not watching the latest season of "Game of Thrones."

We’re not the only ones who love the Onkyo HT-S7800, either. High-Def Digest gave the system a hefty 4.5 stars, and it boasts an average of 4.2 stars on Amazon. The price? A very reasonable $777 on sale or $999, when it's not.

Pros: Reasonable price, great sound, wireless features, support for added speakers, 4K support

Cons: It's still a lot of money

Buy the Onkyo HT-S7800 on Amazon for $777.00 (originally $999.00)

The best home theater system for less than $600

Yamaha/YouTube

Why you'll love it: The Yamaha YHT-5920UBL boasts decent speakers for the price, but the real advantage is its excellent wireless support.

Onkyo isn’t the only company to make great surround sound home theater systems for a good price. If $800 is a little much for your price range, there are still some great options available, including the Yamaha YHT-5920UBL.

While this system may not be as well-loved as the Onkyo system, it still has a lot to offer for less than $600. For starters, the speakers sound pretty good. No, they may not be what an audiophile is looking for, but most consumers will be happy with the sound in general.

The receiver is where the magic happens in this system. It boasts six HDMI inputs, but it only has one HDMI output, so you’ll need an extra adapter if you want to connect to multiple TVs or a projector as well as a TV. On top of that, it offers a host of wireless capabilities, including through Wi-Fi, Wireless Direct, Apple AirPlay, and Bluetooth. In other words, you should be able to stream from pretty much any media device you own, and even if not, there’s an aux port on the front of the receiver for wired methods.

There are a few downsides to the system to consider. For starters, only one of the HDMI inputs supports 4K content, so if you have multiple 4K sources you’ll have some trouble. The speakers themselves are also built from plastic, which not everyone is a fan of.

Pros: Good for the price, great wireless support, lots of HDMI inputs

Cons: Only one HDMI input with 4K support, sound quality isn’t amazing

Buy the Yamaha YHT-5920UBL on Amazon for $599.95 (originally $699.95)

The best home theater system for less than $300

Samsung

Why you'll love it: The Samsung HT-J4500 offers some smart TV features and a Blu-Ray player, but the best thing about it is that it boasts great value for money.

Samsung is another pretty serious player in the home theater world, and while the company offers dozens of systems in many price ranges, we particularly loved the value for money you can get with the HT-J4500. No, it’s not the best-sounding system out there, nor is it the most versatile, but at only $173 on sale, it’s hard to beat the price. Even when it's full price, the system costs a mere $250.

The speakers themselves are fine for home use, and the receiver doubles as a Blu-Ray player, so if you still have discs lying around and haven’t yet moved to streaming you’ll still be able to play those discs. Not only that, but the receiver also has access to a wide range of apps through Opera TV, so you can get in on the smart TV action, too.

As far as inputs and outputs go, the system is a little basic. It offers one HDMI output and one digital audio input, but there aren’t actually any HDMI inputs. This box is meant to function on its own, instead of being used with any other TV device like the Apple TV.

Pros: Excellent value for money

Cons: Lack of inputs, Not the best sound quality

Buy the Samsung HT-J4500 on Amazon for $173.00 (originally $249.99)

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