I've recently ventured out into the world and purchased a very nice Onkyo surround receiver with speakers. The set up retails for around 500 - 600 dollars. That's in your big bully electronics stores. I purchased it for $360.00 shipped. How? Read on.

The big problem with going to a local thrifty retailer and picking up your surround sound in a box is...well...you get what you pay for. An $80 surround sound receiver that comes with speakers...well that's going to equate to 6 months to a year of sketchy operation. So what do you do? You could go to an electronics store sure. The salesmen work on commission there most of the time so I'm sure they'll be totally honest with you.

Yeah right.

My preferred method is an in person look at whatever I'm going to buy. I go to a retail store, jot down the model number of what i think is a good buy and then return to my friend the internet. The next thing I would do is go to Newegg.com.Newegg is an electronics site that has tons of buyers tools that will help you find out what the best the best brand is for your price range. Having a price range in mind is also a must in this situation. When it comes down to it you can nickel and dime yourself to death with extra features on something like a surround sound unit.

First things first find your electronic category, then do an advanced search. Select your price range, and any features you KNOW you need. From there you can see several listings which will have an "egg rating" of one to five. You will also see how many people have reviewed the product. Use your discretion here but i wouldn't purchase a product that hasn't been reviewed many times. Chances are even if it's a good rating thus far, a dud is on its way. You don't want to be that dud.

To speed this up you can sort the list of products by best rating or by the popularity of the product. Popularity is different from rating. Popularity means it's been reviewed a LOT. Rating means it's been reviewed WELL.

Once you find one that seems to have a good rating and plenty of them, look at the positive reviews for a second and gloat over what a find you've made and for what a low price, then look at the negative reviews. There are almost always negative reviews. Look at the worst ones. You can determine here if the reviewer was intelligent or if they didn't have a clue what they were talking about. Or perhaps it's an acceptable issue that these people have.

One review i read when purchasing my new surround sound unit stated that there was no hdmi audio switching, only video. This was acceptable as I as of yet have no HDMI devices.

If you don't like the reviews and don't feel it's an acceptable risk go back to the list of products and find another that is suitable. Repeat the process.

If you're excited about it and want it and want it NOW then go ahead and purchase it from newegg. They have great customer service, great warrantys and an excellent shipping speed. Click the rush processing option for another 3 - 4 dollars and you'll get the device quite a bit faster. If this is done before noon, you'll often have the product the next day.

If you're patient enough to save a bit more money jot down the model number of the device you're now in love with. Then go to www.froogle.com. Do a search for that product number only. You'll possibly save...well quite a bit of money. I saved over $100 by doing a froogle search for my surround sound receiver.

It takes a bit of time and effort but in the end this process saved me personally over $200. I'd say it's worth it.