Home Theater Satelite System

audiobliss

Friend of mine has my old Yamaha RX-V1400 and is looking to add a home theater system (on the cheap) to his LCD tv. He hasn't used the Yamaha in quite some time, as it was exhibiting problems with channels cutting out, apparently. Conscious of the desire to get surround sound in the living room he pulled it out again and it seems to be working fine now.

I know the RX-V1400 is definitely an older unit, and I may be biased since it was mine, but I'm of the persuasion it's still a very solid unit, especially if it's available and we're working with a tight budget. It'd be great for powering a 5.1 system, then hopefully zone 2 could power his speakers in another room.

So here are the questions....

Since the condition of the receiver is somewhat suspect, it'd be nice to have it checked out and confirmed to be in good working order. Could one expect for it to be thoroughly checked out and satisfactorily ok'd from most any legit electrical repair shop? How much would a service like that cost?

And then IF it checks out...

With $300 to play with, what speaker system would you recommend to pair with it? Can't go over budget at all. I looked at what Polk has to offer, and the RM705 is really the only thing in budget at around $240 shipped from amazon. The Klipsch HDT300 system looks pretty nice, and can be had on amazon from what appears to be a reputable seller for $307 shipped.

What else comes to mind that would be a good alternative in this price range?

Then, if the receiver doesn't check out, what's the best option for a complete surround sound system within $300? It might be possible to find something like this Onkyo HTS3300 for less than $300, though very possibly not. Outside of that, then, it looks like options such as this Sony DAV-DZ170 might be the only way to go.

So, that's basically everything. Please jump in here and provide whatever advice you can on any aspect of this search. Would be much appreciated it!!

Thanks!