Best Home Theater System Under $1000 (Top 7 Reviewed)

Finding the best home theatre system for your living or theater room is a big Hustle to overcome and this hustle is even harder in this age because of a lot of garbage reviews about home theatre systems on the internet.

Another point is that finding a good quality theatre system under $1000 is even harder because not all manufacturers are able to cut the prices and pump up the quality of the system at the same time.

Finding a Dolby Atmos and 4K HDR-capable home theatre system in this price range Is like scoring hole-in-one in golf. In other words, like having feelings for the word splendid.

But don’t worry I have reviewed the top 7 systems for you. You don’t need to search for hole-in-one golf scoring. Each review is written after the results of buying a theatre system for myself and testing out theatre systems in my friends’ houses.

We are a group of friends that are enthusiastic about home theatre and this enthusiasm caught even more fire during this pandemic when we were in a lockdown in our houses.

Before deep-diving into the reviews let me clear a misleading conception about the theatre system on the internet. So, that you know you are in the right place to hunt for reviews of the theatre systems.

Our Top Tested & Reviewed Products At A Glance

Scroll left to right on mobile for the full data

Theater System	Surround Sound Audio	Video	Ratings	Today’s Best Deals
Onkyo HT-S3910	5.1 + Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization	4K ultra HD & Dolby Vision	5/4.8	Check Price On Amazon
Yamaha YHT-5950U	5.1	4K Ultra HD with HDR10	5/4.7	Check Price On Amazon
Onkyo HT-S3900	5.1	4K HDR	5/4.5	Check Price On Amazon
Yamaha YHT-4950U	5.1	4K HDR	5/4.3	Check Price On Amazon
Rockville HTS56	5.1	N/A	5/4	Check Price On Amazon
RCA RT2781HB U	5.1	N/A	5/2.1	Check Price On Amazon

What is the difference between a home theatre system and a speaker Set?

A home theatre system is a complete package of 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound with its AV receiver. The speaker set is different in that you get a set of 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound speakers and you don’t get an AV receiver.

In a home theater system, you get complete home theatre in a box (speakers + AV receiver) without a display like Smart TV, smart projector, or media source like Blu-ray. You will have to get the display and media source separately.

But for the speaker set, you will have to buy an AV receiver too.

Each reviewed theatre system in this article is having its own AV receiver, not like other bloggers that are reviewing speaker sets in the name of theatre Systems.

Confident and super pumped? Nice. Let’s dive into the reviews.

Onkyo HT-S3910 – Best For Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization

This Onkyo HT-S3910 is the perfect gadget to transform your home theatre system and set up a professional cinema-like experience in the comfort of your home.

At a price range of below $400, this is the perfect replacement for Sound Bar. Skip the soundbar and get this model and you will not regret your decision. Here you will get a complete surround sound package with an AV receiver. No soundbar can give you this facility.

With its Bluetooth capabilities, you can connect your mobile laptop or any other device. You can stream your audio from the mobile and the DSP technology in this receiver will enhance the music bit by bit to output a clear and rich sound.

The height virtualization technology in this theatre system is a game-changer. You can have Dolby Atmos height and surround sound effects from a simple speaker’s layout.  

You don’t need to buy huge floor-standing speakers or mount your speakers on the ceiling in your theatre room to get the Dolby Atmos height and surround sound effects. Because this system can provide a Dolby Atmos height virtualization facility.

With 5 HDMI connections and 1 HDMI ARC connection, you can have 4K HDR and Dolby Vision quality video and Dolby Atmos quality audio from this theatre system.

On our testing, we found that all speakers in the systems can integrate well and the sound is constant across all the speakers. The Bluetooth connectivity is smooth.

What is new in Onkyo HT-S3910 that Onkyo HT-S3900 doesn’t have?

This new model Onkyo HT-S3910 sound is enhanced. The sound is now rich, clear, and louder than the previous version. The base is now deeper in this new model.

This new version is having a dongle connectivity option as well. You can connect the dongle straight to the AV receiver. 

You can then stream HDR 4K content with Dolby Atmos audio from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and many more apps that your dongle is providing.

This feature is a game-changer at this price with the best video and audio quality. Also, this dongle feature is upgrading Onkyo’s budget-friendly models for the new age technology.

Also, this model is having DTS virtual X Technology. This technology gives the ability to this receiver of giving a 3D sound field to any speaker layout of a 2.1, 3.1, or 5.1 surround system.

If your media source is 2.1 then you don’t need to connect complete surround sound speakers to get a 3D sound field because this technology can enhance it. No discrimination baby, LOL!

But to get real 3D sound than you should consider installing in-ceiling speakers. They will shower Dolby Atmos over you from above. Read my this in-ceiling speakers review to know more.

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Yamaha YHT-5950U – Best For 5.1 Surround Sound

This is one of the bests in this price range by Yamaha due to its smartness of connecting to Wi-Fi, Google Assistant, and Alexa. The great Dolby TrueHD sound and 4K Ultra HD capability of video processing by the AV receiver. The use but the acceptable condition is under $1000.

You can connect your Apple devices like iPhone and iPod with the help of Airplay 2 functionality in this system receiver.

It instantly connected to my friend’s home Wi-Fi and he was able to connect it to Apple TV  with Samsung UHD 4K TV and Blu-ray player and everything was working fine and the connection was Swift.

He was even able to connect Bluetooth speakers to the system from another room and outdoor speakers in the range and was able to control it with the MusicCast app on his phone. Bingo!

It was an amazing experience at my friend’s house and this product amazed me after reviewing many more theatre Systems at my friends’ houses.

When connected to Wi-Fi you can instantly stream music from Spotify, Pandora, and many more, and also it has hundreds of radio stations to stream.

I bought it and then set it up and powered it on. The sound was not good as it was in my friend’s house.

But I followed the Yamaha instructions and connected the YPAO room optimization mic to the AV receiver. 

It started with weird sounds which were annoying but after a few minutes, it perfected the overall sound of this theatre system, and OMG the sound was optimized so well.

The YPAO room optimization technology is introduced by Yamaha and works to perfect the sound of the speakers according to the acoustics of your theatre room. 

You have to connect the mic and place it where you want your speaker’s sound and it will automatically perfect the speaker sound according to your room condition.

Yamaha is also providing rear speakers that don’t need wires to connect them to the receiver. You can connect those MusicCast20 speakers via Bluetooth to the receiver and in this way, you don’t need to run wires to the end of the room to connect your complete surround, sound speakers.

Yamaha mentions that you can place all the speakers in front of you and you will still experience surround sound like audio but this is not recommended by me. 

You should always place the rear speakers behind you for the best surround sound experience.

To learn more about the rear and surround speakers you can read my this best satellite speakers review. You will know which properties shift speakers to which position.

What is new in Yamaha YHT-5950U that Yamaha YHT-4950U doesn’t have?

The wifi and the music cast give you the facility to stream 100s of radio channels via wifi. Because of streaming through wifi, you can hear the channels with more clear and better-quality audio.

A wireless connection for the rear speakers. Don’t need to run wires to the end of the room.

You can connect speakers to the system via Bluetooth from other rooms at your house or can connect speakers outdoors. Awesome.

With Airplay 2 you can connect your Apple devices and Apple TV.

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Onkyo HT-S3900 – Best Of The Best For Non-audiophile And Very Budget-Friendly

This is the 5.1 surround sound system with Bluetooth and HDMI connectivity.

You can connect your Bluetooth devices like mobile and laptops directly to this system and you can instantly enjoy surrounding sound magic at your home.

The HDMI connectivity enhances the convenience for users and you can connect your media source through a single HDMI wire.

In the user manual, it is advised by Onkyo that this HDMI ARC may not work in any condition. 

Like when I was testing this system in my friend’s house he was unable to connect Roku directly to the HDMI ARC port of this system’s AV receiver.

He came up with another simple solution that everyone can follow if their TV is having multiple HDMI ports.

My friend connected a Roku to the HDMI supported port of the TV and then connected the TV through ARC HDMI port to the AV receiver and hence he was able to successfully connect the Roku dongle.

So keep in mind if you want the ARC connection to work in any condition, your smart TV must have multiple HDMI ports.

Another best part about this system is that it can deliver Dolby TrueHD quality audio and 4K HDR quality video.

The Dolby Atmos audio gives a cinema-like experience at your home. Get the sound of the movie as the producers intended you to hear.

But to experience Dolby TrueHD and 4K HDR quality of this system you must play this level of content on it. Your media source should have 4K and Dolby TrueHD quality so that you get the perfect experience from this system.

You can connect any memory device that is compatible with USB connectivity directly to the AV receiver. Make sure that you have 4K content in that memory device.

Our Simple test to prove its quality for non-audiophile:

We played a YouTube video with frequencies 20 hertz to 20000 hertz to test the high and low tones capability of this system

The overall system and subwoofer were capable of throwing out the low tones and high as 10000 Hertz and even beyond.

You can do this test by yourself. Go to YouTube and play any video of this kind on any system.

These test results proved that this is the perfect system for non-audiophile people.

Here are a few subwoofers under $300 that are best fit for non-audiophile. Few of those subs’ performances will shock you. I have done some extensive research for this review.

Another thing that my friend and I noticed with this system is that, don’t use old and poor-quality HDMI cables with this system. Always use updated HDMI cables in good condition for this system to work properly and smoothly.

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Yamaha YHT-4950U – Best For Pro System At Low Budget

This model is the outdated version of Yamaha YHT-5950U Without Wi-Fi but still, this model can give you nice theatre sound at a low budget.

It can provide 4K Dolby vision of the video and Dolby TrueHD with cinema DSB technology that can give you sound quality like a huge cinema hall in your room.

The hybrid log-gamma technology in this model is giving the ability to make pictures more realistic, natural-looking, rich, and deep.

The sound Optimisation technology of YPAO is included in this model. You have to place the YPAO mic in a place you want to hear sound and this will optimize the sound according to the environment of your room.

The sound quality is so amazing that upon our testing we find that when fighter jets are flying on the screen we feel like it is flying above our heads and we still hear the dialogue.  It is a pretty amazing experience at this price.

In this model, the 5.1 virtualization technology is introduced too as same as in the new updated version. 

In which you get surround sound-like experience by placing all the speakers at the front but still, I will not recommend doing this.

To have a complete surround sound experience you should place the rear speaker at the back of your sitting area but if you are watching movies in your bed then you can rely on this feature otherwise avoid it.

The FM and AM sounds are clear and of great quality through the antenna connection.

Eco mode is introduced in this model when this mode is on, it can save the power 20% less than the normal condition. 

You can connect mobile devices or laptops through Bluetooth with the AV receiver and you can stream audio directly from your mobile with no need for a wired connection.

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Rockville HTS56 – Best Audio Only Set under $200

This theatre system is giving you the best sound quality under $200 with many more features that will be discussed here.

The sound is great and can give you good quality 5.1 surround sound. Obviously, at this price range, you will not get the purest form of 5.1 surround sound but you can have a taste of it.  It is a more optimized version of 2.1 sound. But at this price range, the sound quality is amazing and can bring the theater experience to your living room or theater room.

This is best for those who are new to the surround sound theatre system game and they are short in budget.

You get two mic inputs at the front that can be used to plug in your mic and start the karaoke party. Echo is being introduced into the system to reflect the true experience of Karaoke.

You can plug in a USB to the front and start streaming your favorite songs from the USB. You can also tuck in your memory card to the memory card reader at the front of the system. 

You can also connect your mobile device via Bluetooth and start streaming your music. 

Just connect the FM antenna and the built-in FM receiver will start playing your favorite radio stations.

The volume control area is at the front below the digital display. Where you can switch from 2.1 sound to 5.1 surround system and can up the volume from 1 to 60.

At 60 it can shake the walls of the living room. This system is 1000 watts and the sound is really amazing and does match the 1000 watts range.

The whole theatre system speakers are having beautiful LED  lights display.

This LED light’s color and behavior can be changed but only on the subwoofer and not on all other speakers. Other speakers will be lit blue only.

The best part is that you can manage each speaker’s music separately.

It is having RCA connections and optical input to connect to your TV. Modern TVs do have optical input but you can also connect this system via Bluetooth to your TV.

If your TV does not have an RCA connection then you can use a DA converter for the connectivity.

Many users when they connect this system through a DA converter to their TV they were not getting good sound at all and were experiencing Humming sound. 

If you experience this then change the TV sound from digital to PCM then everything will be working fine and the sound will be good. So keep in mind to avoid this mistake.

Many users that have connected this system to TV through optical input were experiencing static noise. 

In this case, you have to connect this system to another TV but if the static noise is existing with another TV as well then you will have to talk to the Rockville support and they will assist you on what to do. Their support system is great and they know how to overcome errors like these.

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Bonus Product Review

RCA RT2781HB U – Best For Only The AV Receiver 

(There is a reason at the bottom why I reviewed it)

Don’t be confused by its name it does provide 3 HDMI inputs and one HDMI output but this system AV receiver is emphasized more on RCA connections.

It is providing a Bluetooth connection for your mobile and laptop devices to connect Android and Apple devices and start streaming your favorite music.  

The audio receiver of the system can give you a cinema-like audio experience but the included speakers are not of good quality. 

The sound is not rich and deep. To get the most out of the audio receiver you can connect good quality speakers to the receiver and then it can even shake your room.

It can give you Dolby Digital 5.1 quality surround sound audio.

The inbuilt digital AM and FM tuner is capable of streaming your local radio station.

You can connect gaming consoles, cable TV boxes, Blu-ray players, and more.

To get the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound it is recommended that you use an optical cable connection it.

The included remote is not of good quality and can be annoying many times during usage.

The rear speakers at the back are not good and the front speakers are required to do the heavy lifting for them.

Here are some of the best receivers and preamps/processors on the market. I have reviewed those that I have tested in my business activities.

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FAQs

Which brand is best for the home theater system?

Yamaha is amazing for its hi-fi and high-end home theater systems.

Onkyo is best for the best theater systems on a budget manufacturer.

Rockville is yet another cool dude at the other end of the street. They are gradually progressing.

Do I need Dolby Atmos?

You need it if you want to bring the cinema hall-like experience to your home. 

When I was watching Charlie’s Angels 2019 in a Dolby Atmos-optimized cinema hall and when one Angel swung on a wire with the help of her umbrella handle. 

I felt like she just passed by my head and I turned my head to the right to see her and I was amazed at how the sound manipulated me to do so.

The other day I started researching Dolby Atmos. And now I have Dolby Atmos at my home theater.

Is 5.1 or 7.1 better?

If you are a regular home theater enthusiast, that wants to experience the cinema at home and need no more extra show off then 5.1 surround sound is the best for you.

If you are out of the regular home theater owners league and you are on the audiophile people’s team, then you will need 7.1 surround sound to take the home theater experience to another level.

Helpful Resources For The FAQs To Read More

1. Just read their details here on Dolby Homepage. (Resource for the second answer)
2. Klipsch here is telling you how to create 7.1 and 7.2 surround sound. (Resource for the third answer)