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To get a great home theater system on a budget, it can be fun to visit a local electronics store where a slick salesman will offer you an outrageous price on a complete system. However, once you've decided what it is you want, buying components individually is the best way to go. The key to budgeting is to decide which features you need and which you can pass up. By prioritizing, you can save money without giving up anything you actually wanted in the first place.

Part 1: choosing a receiver.

1. Decide what it is you want to listen to in surround sound. If you like HD or satellite radio, you'll need to make sure your receiver will pick up those signals. On the other hand, if all you care about is being able to listen to CD's, watch DVD's, and play games in surround sound, the radio part is unimportant. Don't pay up for HD or satellite radio capabilities.

2. Decide what you'll be plugging in to the pre-amp. The pre-amp is where sound signals from the DVD player, game system, or CD player will come in, as well as where video signals will come in before being routed to the TV. Make sure your pre-amp will support component audio and component video so that you can enjoy the full level of detail in your music, movies, and games.

3. Choose the number of channels. The number of output channels determines the number of speakers. The more speakers you have, the more realistic the "surround sound" effect. Keep in mind that placement of speakers matters a lot too; if you can't place your speakers properly there's no point in having them.

4. Ignore the tech specs. Sound quality is a complex interplay of power, signal to noise ratio, and distortion rating, much as home dcor is a complex interplay of color, texture, and space. You wouldn't buy a $300 vase just because some interior decorator told you it looked better, would you? So don't pay up for a high performance system because the numbers seem impressive. When you're actually using the system, you won't be mentally reciting technical specifications; you'll be listening to that enemy approaching from behind you in a game, or hearing a car zoom by in a movie, or enjoying all the musical subtleties of your favorite CD. You're not buying the system for your brain; you're buying it for your ears! Let them decide. Listen to a variety of sounds on a variety of systems and only pay up for a high performance feature if it truly makes an audible difference.

Part II: The speakers and cables.

1. Don't cheap out here. The expensive

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