Hi All - First I'll give some details on my setup: I'm currently using a Yamaha HTR-5550 receiver with a Boston Acoustics 5-speaker/sub-woofer set, all of which I bought in 2001. On the visual end I have an Optoma projector and a 90" screen bought last year. My other components are a PS3, HD cable box, VCR and a Wii. Everything is in a dedicated movie theater room, around 13'x15'. The system works great but I'm finding the surround sound doesn't seem to work with the newest movies, blue ray in particular. When I watch, for example, the pod racing scene from 'Star Wars Episode I', the system is incredible, you can feel the rumble of the engines, hear the speeders racing past you over your shoulder, etc. However, I just watched 'Terminator: Salvation' and 'Fast and The Furious' blu-ray on my PS3 and pretty much all the sound came from the front 3 speakers with minor assistance from the rear speakers and even less from the sub-woofer. I run the sound from the PS3 to the receiver via optical cord (no HDMI inputs in the receiver). My first question is, is this problem because my receiver can't decode the latest technology or should I recheck my receiver's settings?
IF I am correct then at this point I'm pretty much mostly interested in upgrading my receiver. I'll move on to the speakers in a few months. My budget for the receiver is around $500. I'm looking to stick with my 5 channel system as it fits the space well. One question is, as advances are made, will I regret not moving to a 7 channel system or will 5 channel most likely still be pretty good for quite some time? Secondly, there is a blinding array of receivers out there and I was just hoping to get a few suggestions from the experts here. Speaker pairing suggestions also welcome but probably will wait till I have another $500+ for that. Thanks a lot!
IF I am correct then at this point I'm pretty much mostly interested in upgrading my receiver. I'll move on to the speakers in a few months. My budget for the receiver is around $500. I'm looking to stick with my 5 channel system as it fits the space well. One question is, as advances are made, will I regret not moving to a 7 channel system or will 5 channel most likely still be pretty good for quite some time? Secondly, there is a blinding array of receivers out there and I was just hoping to get a few suggestions from the experts here. Speaker pairing suggestions also welcome but probably will wait till I have another $500+ for that. Thanks a lot!
