Audiophiles! I require your assistance!

[Morrigainz]

Last year I bought my husband a sound bar for Christmas because supposedly it replicates surround sound without actually being surround sound.

False. It acts as a decent center speaker though.

I want to get Mr. MirGSS a new receiver because his current one has problems - whenever we use the surround sound, he has to whack the receiver a few times to get it to work. Seems like a connection problem. So, I'm thinking new receiver. Unfortunately I know next to nothing about audio equipment.

Here is what I have discovered: the right, left, rear right, and rear left speakers are all 8 ohms. The subwoofer is 60W, passive I believe. He currently has two...thingies. A Technics SH-AC300 and a Technics SA-AX710.

I don't have a lot of money to blow, so....help?

[walt_mink]

It looks like he's probably using the SH-AC300 as a higher end surround sound processor / preamp and is using the SA-AX710 as a power amp for whatever input is into the preamp and as a general switching pre/poweramp for the other devices. Do you know which device is giving him trouble? I suspect it's the AC300.

I would guess that a modern A/V amp would be ideal for him to replace both units, but this sort of equipment can be pretty personal. Do you have a budget in mind? Has he ever mentioned specific gear that he'd like?

[Morrigainz]

Actually that's a good point. I guess I'm not sure which one is giving him trouble. I do know that when we hook the speakers up initially, sometimes one (or more) of them don't work in the sound test unless he hits whatever-it-is a few times.

He's never mentioned anything specific; in fact he probably doesn't care (that much). He's one of those hard-to-buy-for people. I was hoping not to spend more than $250...nothing we have is super high end. The surround sound sounds good....when it works.

[Morrigainz]

Bueller?

[msuroo]

At the $250 price point, everything is pretty similar. As long it all works, my guess is that you'll be pretty happy with it.

One suggestion - you can usually save some money (or get more equipment for your dollar, depending on how you look at it), cruising ebay for stuff from the last "model year". For example $250 will get you this, compared to the current model which will run you $100 more.

[SuperUnison]

I think you'd be able to buy a surround sound amp at that price. They're much better now than they used to be, my old one had no HDMI connections so was a bit of a pain. I'm sure if you googled reviews of entry level surround sound speakers they'd throw up a few options.