Well im searching for a htib too, 15-18k is the budget.. was looking for onkyo, demoed the denons too, sony's new range..even lg, but havent been able to find a shop that stocks phillips
I already have a 5.1 surround system, with prologic and all, but it doest hav optical in
It sounds very awesome, the bass pwns even the denons i heard, in dvd surround playback..And i dont mean boomy and crappy effects, they are actually GOOD..
Had got this unit for 26k few yrs back..its a 3cd changer + tape player..
If you want anything similar, i demoed a sony 20k htib dvd player with optical in, the shop had a blueray player and i made him pass through audio through optical and it was awesome...high on details compared to an lg player,that retails for 13 k, for the same scene in "Wanted" blueray, ...it sounded sweet not harsh.. but certainly not vfm...
I'l go and search for some place to demo phillips tomorrow and report back..
And dont just look for god sound, check the surround compatiblity, like dd, dts etc..anyone has any idea abt htibs that play the hd versions like dts hdmaster etc?