Hi do I need " Home Audio Receiver" if I want to hook up surround sound speakers for home theater?

Question

Hi I want to upgrade my HDTV & I want buy home surround sound speakers from Bose. It has 5 speakers & it cost $499.99. If I decide to buy it, do I also need to buy a "Home Audio Receiver" too?

Thank you! :)

Answer 1

You will need  an amplifier as well as the speakers, don't buy Bose, far better is available for far less.

Answer 2

For clarification you will need a "Home Theater Receiver". A Home Audio Receiver is typically two channels only, a left and a right.  A Home Theater Receiver has five to seven channels of decoding. Five channels is the minimal industry standard of surround sound.

Look for  a home theater receiver that decodes both Dobly digital and DTS audio. Most in todays stores will do this.

Keep in mind that surround sound only works with DVDs and a few movies that air on premium networks and some HD channels.  Most television shows are recorded in stereo which is a left and right channel only.

Once you have a home theater receiver, you will need the front left, center, right , right surround,and left surroundspeakers to consider plus a subwoofer that you will need.

After that the DVD player will round out one of the final pieces of equipment you will need other than your tv.

Answer 3

Don't get the Bose system. Bose is overpriced and I personally don't like the way they sound (muddy bass, missing midrange, and hissy treble).

For about that much money, you can get a new Klipsch Quintet system (5 speakers) and a powered SW-10 subwoofer on eBay from a factory-authorized Klipsch dealer. And, it will blow away anything Bose has to offer.

Regarding a receiver, Yamaha is about the best for inexpensive surround sound receivers. You can pick up a new Yamaha 5.1 surround sound receiver with about 70 watts per channel for about $200. And, you'll be very pleased with that system.