[CButterworth]

I suddenly realized that I may have most of the components for playing movies in something other than stereo.

My Audio equipment consists of AKSA 55N amp, powered by an Aikido tubed preamp.  This powers floorstanding speakers.  Obviously this is stereo and works great for my CD's, vinyl, 2 channel DVD's etc.

However, I use a Sherwood 200W (100WPC?) for my tuner - I simply take the "tape out" and feed the line level into my Aikid preamp. This is great for listening to stereo radio.  I do not connect any speakers to the Sherwood, and ensure that the speaker outputs are switched off, and volume is set to zero.

I also have a spare set of Sony 3.1 bookshelf speakers.

So, I was thinking that the Sony speakers connected to the Sherwood would make pretty good rear channel speakers for HT DVD playing.  The AKSA would work great for the main L and R channels, and the center channel could be left disconnected?

Would this sound OK?

My DVD player has coax digital and optical out, so I need to connect it to some kind of HT (5.1?) decoder which would simply route the Front L/R line-level signals to the AKSA and rear L/R line-level signals to the Sherwood.  I would then use the Aikido preamp volume to control the Front L/R and the Sherwood vol to set the rear L/R.

So, any ideas of a cheap (really cheap) HT decoder?

Or any other advice.

Thanks,
Charlie

[MaxCast]

By the cheapest AV receiver with preouts that you can.
Take the front l,r outs into your preamp.
Use the sony for surround and sub.  Tell your avr that there is no center.  I imagine you'd be better off with no center.  The avr will direct the center information to your l&r speakers.

Hope this helps

[CButterworth]

Great.

OK, so I found an online review for a sub $50 receiver/decoder for HT.  BUT I can't find it now.

Can anyone recommend a really, really cheap HT decoder (less than $100)????


Charlie

[WGH]

Have you tried craigslist.org? There is a Harman Kardon AVR 35 for $100 in Tucson.
http://tucson.craigslist.org/ele/369085796.html