Drumtochty
Standard Member
I'm upgrading our 3 year old home cinema from a budget all-in-one Phillips stero system to something better. Budget is small, so I'm getting second hand stuff.
I've upgraded the DVD player to a Toshiba XD-E500 which we show through our old Optoma DLP projector onto the wall (love it!). Now I want to improve the sound. I have various old Hi-Fi speakers in the attic (mostly Mission 75x series), so all I need an amp (corect me if I'm wrong!).
The question is: since the DVD already has phono outputs for 5 speakers, am I better looking for a quality but simple 5 channel amp, or should I be getting something with a built-in Dolby/DTS/whatever decoder and using that to split out the audio channels instead of the DVD?
We mostly watch arty/indie and older films, so not bothered about creating Hollywood style explosions and car chases etc.
Finally, given our watching preferences, do I really need surround sound at all? Would a better quality stereo amp actually give a better experience than a cheaper multi-channel amp.
I don't know much about AV, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I've upgraded the DVD player to a Toshiba XD-E500 which we show through our old Optoma DLP projector onto the wall (love it!). Now I want to improve the sound. I have various old Hi-Fi speakers in the attic (mostly Mission 75x series), so all I need an amp (corect me if I'm wrong!).
The question is: since the DVD already has phono outputs for 5 speakers, am I better looking for a quality but simple 5 channel amp, or should I be getting something with a built-in Dolby/DTS/whatever decoder and using that to split out the audio channels instead of the DVD?
We mostly watch arty/indie and older films, so not bothered about creating Hollywood style explosions and car chases etc.
Finally, given our watching preferences, do I really need surround sound at all? Would a better quality stereo amp actually give a better experience than a cheaper multi-channel amp.
I don't know much about AV, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.