Assuming these goals, from most to least important:
- that you, shaving finally learned (mostly) how to switch inputs, continue to have a system whose behavior you can predict
- reasonable-quality sound in den and living room ...
- ... while playing CDs
- ... while playing radio
- ---- line of essential ^^^ vs. important vvv ---
- ... while playing songs from computer
- ... while playing records
- can enjoy the sound from the kitchen without having to play it loud
- ---- line of important ^^^ vs. nice to have vvv ---
- DVDs sound nice in the living room (not important that they be audible elsewhere)
- VCR tapes sound nice
- TV shows (played thru cable box) sound nice
Please correct the order of priority if necessary. If roughly correct, the below will give you all the "importants", and an additional component will give you "DVDs sound nice", and the last two (with a big caveat).
-
We will leave the stereo system topology the way it is. Anything we did would be much more complex than the current setup, which I actually really like (one remote!!). See diagram, below. This means:
- this, the "stereo system", plays CDs, radio, computer and records.
- it does not carry the sound for DVDs, VCR or TV. They are completely isolated.
- good sound in the den and living room, audible in kitchen.
- you can make the speakers play in a) den, b) living room, or c) den and living room (as well as (d) neither, which will cause a frantic phone call sometime).
- You can't play one thing in den and a different thing in living room; you can play one thing in Den and watch movie or TV (that's independent)
-
Given that, decision on main stereo is simply: how much do you want to pay for the floorstanding speakers.
-
Floorstanding Speakers, in Living Room, connected to receiver by long-assed speaker wires. Choose a price; I don't have strong recommendations here but the amazon ratings are enthusastic.
- high amazon ratings, smart looks, $399 -- Polk Audio TSi500 Floorstanding Speaker
- reasonable ratings, reasonable looks, $150 -- Sony SSF-5000
- I assume that $400 speakers are 30% nicer than $150 speakers, but amortized over 7 years I'd just go with the $400 option
-
Bookshelf Speakers, in den, connected to receiver. This review, at the price, means there's no reason to look any harder.
- $150 -- Pioneer SP-BS41-LR
Installation will be a matter of plugging each in, and throwing out (PLEASE NO PUT IN ATTIC) the old ones
A soundbar is an integrated system built for simple home theather use. What I'd love to be true is for the TV to have an audio out of some sort. Sadly, it does not, as confirmed by photo and the TV's manual. So there's no way to get both (all of TV, VCR, DVD play through it) AND (switching becomes uncomplicated).
If you think it's worth the price, I recommend you get a soundbar and hook it to the DVD player. Your movies will sound much much better. Alex Trebek and the Redskins will sound the same.
Now in principle, you can hook all the other inputs to it -- but the switching around among them will be decoupled from the other input switching. So that will be something that Marky will do but mostly you'll have people just leave it on DVD only. If so:
- Sound Bar, in Living Room, connected to TV.
- probably should go with $250ish -- Vizio VHT215; review (Notes: 3 HDMI ports, 2 digital audio inputs and 1 analog input 40.1 x 1.9 x 3.3 inches)
- $300 -- Samsung HW D450; review (Notes: Audio optical in x 2, minijack, analog RCA. No iPod dock included. Use Samsung HW D550 if input-bound)
+--------------+ +--------------+ +--------------+ +--------------+
| CD Player | | Radio | | AUX Computer | | PHONO record |
+-------+------+ +-------+------+ +-------+------+ +------+-------+
| | | |
"CD" "Tuner" "AUX" "PHONO"
| | | |
| +------+ +-------+ |
+-------------------+ | | +---------------------+
| | | |
v v v v
+------------------+ +----------+
Receiver switch | | Den Speakers | ----- |
inputs | +===========+--R-----------------O ( ) |
| Receiver | | | ----- |
Receiver switch | +=====\ | +----------+ | --- |
Speaker outputs | | || | | ----- | | / \ |
+------------------+ || +--L--O ( ) | | | | |
A: ???? || | ----- | | \___/ |
B: ???? || | --- | +----------+
|| | / \ |
|| | | | |
==========// | \___/ |
// +----------+
||
~~~~ to Living room
~~~~ from receiver
||
||
|| Living Room Speakers +---------+
\\ | (_) |
+====+--R-----------------O ____ |
| | ( ) |
| +---------+ | ---- |
| | (_) | | ---- |
+--L--O ____ | O ( ) |
| ( ) | | ---- |
| ---- | | -- |
| ---- | | / \ |
O ( ) | | | | |
| ---- | | \__/ |
| -- | +---------+
| / \ |
| | | |
| \__/ |
j +---------+
+--------------+ +--------------+ +--------------+
| DVD Player | | Cable Box | | VCR |
+-------+------+ +-------+------+ +-------+------+
| | |
Source: "HDMI/DVI" "TV" "Component"
| | |
+--+ | +-------+
TV switches | +----+----+ |
inputs via | | Ch 3! | v
"Source" | +----------+---------+----------+
Button: | | |
Hit "Source" | | |
until right one | | ----+---- \ / |
then hit "Mute" | | | \ / +-- hdmi -- -+
(twice) | | | \ / | in |
| | | \ / | |
| | | X | |
| | | |
| | | |
| +-------------------------------+ |
| +------------------------------------+ |
hdmi +----+ o (_____) (_______) (_____) o O= hdmi ==+
in +------------------------------------+ out
^^ soundbar )))
(( wireless
((( from soundbar
(( +-----------+
| ------- |
| ( ) |
| ------- |
| subwoofer |
+-----------+