Should i Buy a Home Theatre or a home threatre receiver? What is the difference ?

Question

and here is my other question. My dad wants to know what kind of speakers should he buy for his 1 Sony STR-DE425 230W receiver? what wattage should they be ?,Please somebody help me...

Answer 1

a home theater is the combintation of a reciever, speakers, dvd player, tv and any other units involved. a home theater reciever is just that, a reciever only, capable of producing multi-channel sound.

as for the speakers, go with a set of entry level polks. your reciever is an entry level unit so keep the speakers comparable

Answer 2

Speakers - dont worry about the wattage.  The numbers on the speakers are the upper limit so you dont destroy them.

Most of the time your speakers are using 8-12 watts of power.

Here is the issue with speakers:

Speakers have 'flavor' like ice cream or beer. You just have to sample some to find what you like.

It's a newbie mistake to post: "I have $$$ what is the best of these 3 speakers...".  Every order that someone gives can be challenged by someone else.  Dont get sucked into this.

What you should look for is:

- A set of 5 tone-matched speakers. Small monitor style is good and for home theater, even inexpensive is fine.

- A self powered subwoofer. The sub does NOT have to be from the same company as the 5 other speakers.

All speakers, even cheap ones, can give a good movie experience.  Music is harder for a speaker to reproduce so take a favorite CD with you to a store to audition.

Many companies sell sets of speakers and these are usually a great way to go for your first system. Companies like Polk, Energy, Klipsch, Definitive Technology, etc. have these sets and good reputations.

Hit your local BestBuy/Magnolia, and CircuitCity and AUDITION.  Bring your own CD. You will find some speakers that just dont sound right, and others that expose things you did not know was on the track.

Just be honest about your budget, dont listen to $2,500 each speaker so you have buyers remorse later and ... have fun.