A dedicated room has some advantages, but you don't need one to start enjoying home theater. Many forummers set up their home theater in the living room.

I know you set initial budget of 5k. If you can stretch a bit to 7k then I think the setup mentioned by mpyw is worth considering. Basically you would split 4k for 5.1 speakers and 3k for AVR + BD player.

As for cables, if you buy the whole set from one place I'm sure you can persuade them to include in some budget cables FOC. One vendor I can suggest is A&L - they carry Marantz, PSB, Yamaha and Velodyne (you can try the Impact 10 sub). I normally see Yap at the Amcorp branch, others see CT Seong at Bangsar or Ricky at Puchong.

This post has been edited by jchong: Nov 2 2009, 03:45 PM

People who buy satellite systems do so mainly because of aesthetic considerations. Hence the 5 channels must be small or discreet. However, don't want to sacrifice on bass hence B&W pair it with an expensive sub (which can be located further away).

If the manufacturer integrates them properly then it should sound balanced, so you have to go audition and see. I've not tested these satellite systems so I don't know.

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Added on November 2, 2009, 8:57 pmSome forummers just reported they bought BD60 at RM599 in Penang!

This post has been edited by jchong: Nov 2 2009, 08:57 PM

For AVR you can also consider the Onkyo 3007. I hear that B&Ws are quite power hungry, some more you're going to run 7.1 setup. Hence you need a beefy AVR or even a separate power amp.