speaker and receiver pairing (1 Viewer)

[sam7931]

I find myself in a situation with a great tv and a mixed audio situation. My receiver is aging and needs to be retired, it doesn't offer hdmi at all. The tv is a panasonic vt60 so I'm doing alright there. I've been using sony sf-5000's for front left and right channels. I have an aging sony sa-wm40 (120w 12") that serves as my sub that I'm pretty happy with.

My question is how do I bring the audio up to date and do justice to my beautiful new picture? At this time I'm an apartment dweller so I'm not looking for huge volume and certainly have no interest in pulling cables for rear surrounds. Open to the possibility of wireless surrounds but I'm also very okay with staying at 2.1 or maybe adding a center channel. The only inputs I have are bluray and xbox so I don't need anything too crazy there.

What should I be looking at as far as a receiver? What should I be considering for my speaker arrangement?

Thanks!

 

[schan1269]

Forget wireless. Not happening. Even if you wanted to try it, you'd have to buy an AVR with pre-outs(cheapest is the Onkyo NR828, unless you went back to the 717/709/708).

With two sources...you don't need much AVR.

Want/need...

Networking?
Ipad/ipod/droid remote app?
2nd zone?

 

[sam7931]

Kind of figured wireless was a bit much to ask. I don't see the reason to spend that much now when in a few years I'll probably have a larger space that I will be fine pulling wire in.

No need for networking that I can think of. I can pipe about everything I need in via the vt60's apps. I do have a bluetooth receiver I use sometimes to stream music from my phone so I suppose I'd like a rca input for that.

No 2nd zone for now. It'd be a nice feature I'd like in the future when I have more space and can run wires but I might as well spend that money in the future.

So I suppose basically my needs at the moment are 2-3 hdmi inputs, 1 rca audio input, arc friendly for broadcast tv. Does the receiver need any special feature to be 2.1 friendly in that it will downmix to that or do I just not attach the surrounds and thats it? Would I gain much with adding a center channel? I'm open to advice on gear but I think I have pretty simple needs, just improving over the tv's built in speakers based on what I have.

 

[schan1269]

You are describing every

 

[sam7931]

Cool, can't argue with that, my old receiver offered no such functionality. I think its nearing its sweet 16 though too

Do I need the "watching" center or can I go ahead and get something thats a step up in quality and will be appreciated in the future?

 

[schan1269]

That is your option. There are Sony centers on Ebay

 

[sam7931]

So its a question of money then and not something that necessarily needs to be "matched"?

 

[schan1269]

Yes, you should match. I'm just saying that sure you "could pay more"...but there is no reason...cause the goal is to match.

 

[sam7931]

I see, sounds good. I suppose the final question that leads to then is if I'm buying a new receiver to go with a sweet new tv, is trying to match a center to ~$100-150 worth of existing speakers a wise decision or is there something I should be looking at for a far better sounding front trio of speakers?

 

[schan1269]

How much do you want to spend?

Three identical speakers is the goal(hard to do with towers, unless you sit your TV on your center speaker)

Three of these would be killer...(and you can buy them in odd numbers)
http://www.amazon.com/Cerwin-VE-15-3-Way-Tower-Speaker/dp/B000EI0EBS/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1387423932&sr=1-3&keywords=cerwin+vega+speakers