Audio Visual Receiver (AVR)

I am 72 YO with high frequency loss and wear hearing aids. SWMBO won’t admit that she is losing her hearing also. To help her and myself hear and understand dialogue, I bought a new home theater system to replace my old El Cheapo stereo. Even though I bought on a low budget, wow what a difference! The dialogue now comes through the center speaker clear and understandable . Even the local news feeds the dialogue through the center. SWMBO didn’t think a new sound system could make a difference in understandability, but she is so glad I bought. I Blu-Rayed “the Equalizer” and the destruction of the Russian tanker scene shook the house. Whispering dialogue is understandable. “1812” with choir, church bells and cannon is fun. I am no audiophile, but I can tell everything sounds so much clearer and better. I highly recommend getting one if you are losing hearing. I have Sennheiser headphones but this is so much better. I am going to spring for another one next summer in our vacation condo to replace the poor-ass soundbar!

There are many opinions on high-end audio gear, and there was a thread on this a few weeks ago. V-Tail was looking for a new TV last week and was concerned about the number of HDMI sockets in the TV. With an AVR setup, you only need 1, as all equipment connects to the AVR. Also, AVRs connect to wifi (Pandora, Spotify, etc) and bluetooth (Amazon Music) for everyday type music.

I am not qualified to make equipment recommendations, and don’t want to in this thread, but a nice setup can be had for less than $1K. I bought a mid-price Yamaha AVR, Polk Audio bookshelf speakers and subwoofer, Yamaha center speaker. All delivered to my house by Amazon for well less than a grand. Other brands and models are just as good or better.