Home Audio reciever questions....

If you're going to go the extra mile and build another box for it too why not just get a new speaker too? PartsExpress has a TON of very reasonably priced subs that would work well.

Try and figure out what you're working with currently so you can choose an amp more effectively and also see if it's worth replacing the speaker. In the end you might be able to sell what you've got to cover the costs.

 

Deff start with a good receiver for a solid platform. Make sure it can get the audio from HDMI and doesn't just do HDMI switching. I know it sounds absurd but some receivers only do "switching" which essentially just lets you pass through HDMI to the TV without ever dropping off the audio to the receiver. My Harmon Kardon AVR146 is like that...biggest mistake ever.


Don't get hung up on power specs either. Just go with something that's 5.1 and has the HDMI like stated above, and has features you like. Most people don't really understand power specs and think they need 100+ watts of power to their speakers which is a fallacy.

*It's also important to note that even if your receiver SAYS 100x5 you'll never even see close to that amount of power with all channels driven. Just trust me on this.

 

+1 on getting a partsexpress plate amp. They have a broad range of amps that can solve your problem. Was your old system a home theater in a box? If that's the case it might not be worth using the old sub considering you could get a powered sub for $100 or so that is much better all around.

As far as receivers go, I've been using an onkyo tx-sr304 (cheap model) and I've been really happy with it. For an entry level receiver, it is really good.

 

What happened to the Marantz?