Stereo to Multi-channel

OK yes I know this question has probably been asked a million times before but this is my first post here so please help out a newbie .....


Current System

Arcam Alpha 10 Amp
Musical Fidelity A3 CD 24 Bit CD player
REL Strata III Sub
Monitor Audio floorstanding speakers (can't remember the model but the girl-friend is watching emergency room on the telly at the mo' and I'm not brave enough to interrupt)
Harmon Kardon DVD5 (5 disc player picked up cheap)
Some old Blaupunkt telly (it's black if that helps)
Planning to replace telly with a Tosh 32ZD26 and getting a Yamaha RX-V630RDS or upgrading the Alpha 10 with a 10P and DAVE module.

How do I go multi-channel without giving up stereo sound quality or losing sub when playing cd's? Which centre and rear speakers should I go for?

 

dBa,

Welcome to the forums! The good news is you don't have to lose stereo quality. You can buy your Yammy, and then use the Arcam to run your front 2 speakers, and the Yammy runs the centre and rears. Sounds complicated but its dead easy

As for centre and rears, Monitor Audio normally do matching speakers for their ranges, you could probably pick some up 2nd hand with a bit of research

 

Thanks UrbanT,

I'm new to all this AV ......
Where do I connect the Sub - to the Yammaha or the Arcam? if it's to the Yammy how does the system operate the Sub when in Stereo mode, is the signal to the sub passed back through the Yammaha?

Edit - Just been down to the local Hi-Fi dealer and he strongly advised me against using the Yamaha / Arcam together. Out of pure coincidence he had an amp set-up that would do the trick for 3000 Euros . Said something about loss of quality, amp gain, line input levels and a tad load of other terms I didn't understand (the conversation was in German, I'm in Vienna).

The safest option is for me to upgrade the Arcam, anybody know how much this costs? Would this be better or worse than the Alpha 10 / Yamaha combination.