There’s only a few places where you can really cut corners with your home theater

Home theaters are expensive, and if you’re looking to get the most out of your setup, you’re either looking at a very high upfront cost or you’re okay with building it out slowly over the years. Either option is perfectly viable, but what if I told you that you don’t have to always go for the high-end options? It’s true, and I recommend saving some money when you can. The cost of everything feels like it’s constantly going up, so saving a few dollars here and there makes a big difference.

What’s even better is that some of these corners you cut won’t actually make a difference in the overall quality of your setup. It sounds strange, but it’s true, and if I were building up a home theater from scratch right now, I’d cut a lot of corners. Not all corners are created equally, however, and if you’re trying to save a lot of money on your receiver or speakers, you’ll likely notice a big drop in sound quality. Of course, that’s all personal preference, but I’d recommend putting a large chunk of your budget toward the things that matter, like your speakers.

I wouldn’t cut corners on your main setup

Speakers are very important

I understand wanting to be budget-friendly, but there are just scenarios where it’s worth spending the extra cash. Your receiver, speakers, and subwoofer are all very important pieces of your home theater, and the higher up in quality you go on those, the better your setup will sound. Now, there are definitely price brackets you can look into, and the Reddit home theater buying guide is a good way to keep track of that. I used that same guide to price out my home theater, and it’s something I’d recommend to anybody, as it’s updated quite often.

The problem with buying something cheap to start is that you may want to upgrade quite soon after that. I made the mistake of buying a cheaper subwoofer, and while I’m still using it, I wish I had just spent a hundred or so more dollars to get something better. It’s easy to feel this way with a lot of your setup, but as long as you don’t go for low-quality gear, I don’t think it’ll be a huge deal. Sure, there will always be upgrades available, but as long as you’re happy with what you have, that’s all that matters.

What I will say is that there’s a difference between cutting corners and knowing exactly what you need. For example, people with smaller rooms won’t get any benefit from a 7.1 surround sound setup since they won’t have enough space to get it properly set up. You can definitely drop to a 5.1 receiver in this case and still get a great sound system. This would effectively cut you off from a future upgrade to 7.1, but if that’s not in the cards anyway, there’s no reason not to do it.

Fortunately, most people’s research will naturally point them in the direction of spending the most money on the focal points of their system. By nature, your receiver and speakers will cost the most, and that’s because the rest of the things needed to round out your setup aren’t all that expensive to begin with. While things like wire and HDMI cables are important, I don’t think you need to really go all out here.

Plenty of other ways to save money

Don’t be afraid to use budget options

Once you have the heavy hitters out of the way, there are still things you need to buy to round out your system — and it’s easy to be caught off guard. The good news is that you might already own many of the necessary pieces to round out your system. HDMI cables are a big thing you need, especially if you buy a receiver. Depending on your receiver, you now have many more HDMI slots than you had on your TV, and it means you can get more things plugged in than ever before.

What I would suggest is grabbing HDMI 2.1 cables if you have modern equipment like an Apple TV 4K or a PS5. Both of these devices benefit from the extra speeds offered. You can actually stop your journey there because a lot of what you see from higher-end HDMI cables isn’t needed. I don’t see a world where you’d actually need to get a gold-plated cable. You won’t see any performance gains from one, and you probably don’t need to get a long cable either. HDMI cables are so common nowadays that many devices you buy already come with one, but I would still recommend swapping out your older ones with 2.1 if you haven’t already. It doesn’t break the bank, and you’ll get the most performance possible by doing so.

There are a few more places you can save some cash, and I would wholeheartedly recommend taking this path. There’s some expensive speaker wire out there, but I don’t think you need to worry about that. I’d recommend just getting a spool from the Amazon Basics brand and calling it a day. I’ve wired nine speakers using Amazon Basic wire and have had no problems whatsoever. Speaker wire isn’t all that expensive to begin with, but you can still save a buck or two with an option from the Amazon brand.

Buying used equipment is a good idea

Lots of savings here

I wouldn’t have thought getting a 7.1 receiver for $15 would’ve been possible before I did it. There’s quite a bit out there available for a low price if you’re willing to buy used equipment. You’d be shocked to see what people are getting rid of, and for how cheap they’ll sell it for. On one hand, it’s easy to see how somebody won’t have any use for an old receiver once they upgrade, because not many people have multiple surround sound systems in their home.

Instead of just tossing it to the wayside, they can sell the older receivers and make some money back. The same thing goes for speakers. What you’ll notice about speakers is that the ones that came out decades ago still get the job done, and I have a stereo set from more than 20 years ago that I use with my record player without any issues. While speakers are likely fine, you’ll need to do some more research about old receivers. There’s a good chance something old won’t support modern formats such as Dolby Atmos, so you need to know if you need that or not. If you’re okay with using just 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, then an older receiver is actually a lot of value.

Something I would recommend, however, is testing something before you buy it. It’s difficult to gamble on electronics, so if you’re buying something in person, you should ask to plug it in and test it first. There’s no telling how somebody treated their electronics, so it’s a huge weight off your shoulders if you can test it beforehand. It’s not always possible, so my advice there is to make sure it’s something cheap enough that you wouldn’t be upset about having it be broken when it arrives. In the case of my $15 receiver, I would’ve been okay if it didn’t work.