Friend of mine has two big tower speakers and some 5.1 surround setup. He wants to keep the towers as front channel and combine with the two rear channels + sub from the surround set. He wants to connect everything to an xbox console and TV for movies-games.
To my understanding he need a receiver and/or amp to do this properly. (correct or am I missing something?)
Are there any cheap choices around 150 euros ? I am looking for the cheapest solution possible but I am not looking for trash obviously.
all of the entry 5.1’s perform about the same. the main difference is tuning. sony tends to be the cheapest of the big brands for the entry models. i live in the states, so i cant tell ya whats available over there. but all the big brands perform well, find the cheapest one available to ya.
one thing to note, the entry models can be weak in the amp section. they look good on paper, but in practical use with the amp driving 5 speakers, they may not get loud enough for some. like most amplifiers in the cheap range, you don’t get the whole volume knob without distortion. if his room is large, entry might not be powerful enough to fill it at theater/concert type levels(some people are into that at their house, not my thing).
So the cheapest big brand one I can find is a Yamaha for 265 euros (next up is a Sony for 400). Is this about right or are there cheaper options?
In this case what do you think is better, go for an older used model for 150 - 200 (most often sacrifice is 4k). Or just go for a stereo amp (which tend to be cheaper) just for the two towers and just forget the 5.1 for now.
