Hi,

I am wondering if there are other receivers that would be compatible with the speakers and subwoofer of a Sony DAV-bc150 HTIB system. I believe the amp/DVD player is going out on the system I currently operate as there is static and crackling coming from all five channels of the system on all modes and, no matter what the volume is set at. It has progressively gotten worse. I'm looking for any suggestions on things I might try. The speaker and subwoofer impedance is 4 ohms and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on other receivers or amps that I might try that would be compatible.

Thanks for all your help.

You're being forced into a reasonable path for improving your surround sound: replace something, then replace something else....

Any A/V receiver will do for now.

You'll find that they are all rated at 8 ohms, not at 4 ohms. That doesn't mean they will have a problem with 4 ohms, it's just that it's harder to output power to 4 ohm speakers and when the US FTC decided on a universal standard so everyone could compare cumquats to cumquats, they chose 8 ohms. Most amps will work just fine with 4 ohms.

If they have any drawback, it will be that they might not play as loud as with 8 ohm speakers. That, however, folds nicely into the fact that your HTIB speakers are probably not too great and won't play too loud anyway. At some point you will want to get better speakers, and your better amp will work great with them.

As I said, this is a nice step in improving your system. Get a good receiver now and you'll only have to replace your speakers to really improve the system.

Having big 4 ohm speakers can be a problem for certain low-powered 8 ohm receivers when they're driven hard, but being that this is a HTIB kit those speakers shouldn't be too demanding. (Although I had thought that 6 ohm was more popular for this kind of thing).

One issue - you mention that the subwoofer is 4 ohms as well. That says to me that it's a passive unpowered sub that uses the HTIB amp for power, which isn't going to work with "normal" A/V receivers that expect a powered subwoofer. You can buy amplifiers and such for the sub, but I honestly would not recommend spending any money on it, and would make a new subwoofer part of your initial receiver purchase.

Once you get away from the HTIB world and have a good amp and some decent speakers you'll never look back.

Thanks for all your help! I'm new to the home audio system. We recently bought a house and the seller left the home theater system. I am trying to piece it together. One more question. The speaker connectors are the Sony proprietary (phone jack style) clips. Will these connectors work with other makes of receivers such as Samsung, Toshiba, Yamaha, etc.? Or are they only compatible with other Sony DVD/Amp combos?

Definitely only other *selected* Sony HTIB systems. Not Sony's separate components either.

If you can spend $550 on a receiver, then you can get something like this:

[Link: usa.denon.com]

It includes some decent little Boston speakers and a powered Boston sub, all with an entry Denon AV receiver. Best part of a package like that is that nothing is propietary. Also, they'll sound alot better than trying to use those Sony speakers with another receiver. Heck, it sounds beter than any Sony HTIB new out of the box.