Surround sound beginner help!

[Steviesam]

Hi all,
Apologies for the beginners question!

I have a surround sound DVD system in the new house, left from the previous owner. Its a Panasonic, quite old but works well.

I cant really replace the speakers as the cables are sunk in the middle of the 2 foot thick cotswold stone walls, and run about 15 meteres to the end wall cupboard- actually they are pretty good anyway.

What I would like is a new "box", that has radio, and bluetooth for ipod streaming and DVD. (Current one does DVD and radio).

When browsing the web, they all seems to come as a kit with speakers etc.

Any ideas what i should be googling for?

Thanks

[anonymous-user]

You can do it three ways:

1) buy another all in one box with speakers, then cut the wires and join them with your existing speakers , discard the new speakers.
2) as above but cut off the existing speakers and replace with the new ones using the existing cabling. If the speakers have special plugs leave them and cut further down the wire.
3) buy an AVR receiver like a Denon etc. Cut the plugs off the speaker wires at the amp end and put them straight into the amp, utilising the existing wires and speakers (or upgrade the speakers too). Add a Blu-ray player to the AVR. Pretty much all the modern AVRs, Denon for sure, include Bluetooth streaming, analogue and digital and internet radio.

Option 3 will give the best results.

[Steviesam]

Perfect!

Thanks

[Fermit and Sarah]

I would also be looking at Yamaha for a receiver. I've had a few of them before, and they are tremendous. You needn't spend a fortune, there are many great used ones on eBay for peanuts. When looking make sure which channels they power, some models only amplify the centre and rears, relying on a separate hi-fi amp to power the left and right.

[tenohfive]

I'd be going with option 3.

And Denon do seem good all in one AVR's - the X2400H is a very good reasonably priced example, although if it's overkill the X540BT is a solid entry point.