Set a budget immediately. Without a doubt, the prices of home theater systems these days are on the up and up. But that does not mean that you can only get the cheapest and scraggliest appliances if you are on a budget. There are loads of discounted but quality systems available, and it will be your task to sniff these out. A decent price for such systems would be around $300 to over $5,000 (or more, for the really grand scaled ones.) However, there are branded systems that sell for only around $150 to $250, too.
You might also want to consider upgrading your current theater system (if you have one) by simply adding more speakers, or buying a better sound system, or a bigger TV. This way, you can gradually build up an impressive system without shelling a lot of money in one pass.
Check you space first. The last thing you need is a home theater system that is larger than your actual living room, bedroom or den space. Sure, everyone would love to get the 60" plasma TV, complete with a 12 unit speaker system (complete with sub woofers.) But would it be practical for your home? Could you actually set it up to make it look good and functional at the same time? If you are unsure of the actual dimensions of your prospective space, getting a measuring tape would help solve this dilemma. Then choose the size of the appliances that you think will work in that space the best.
Also, you might want to consider the size of your prospective space in relation to the number of speakers you want to get. A small room could be supplied with lifelike sounds using only 3 speakers with woofer functions. True enough: a larger room would need more speakers, but sometimes 5 or 6 units will do fine. Unless you have a home theater that comfortably sits 50 people, you might want to rethink about buying those 12 unit speaker systems.
Keywords: home theater systems, sub woofers, speakers