Sound options for an awkward room
First time poster, long time lurker with an upgrade itch who is looking for some direction.
The sound for my home cinema system is currently provided via a 5-year old Denon AV receiver (was entry level at the time, model # escapes me) outputting to a pair of Mourdant Short speakers (about the same age, inexpensive - were ~£150 for the pair).
In an ideal world I'd upgrade the receiver and get a nice set of 5 speakers, but unfortunately my flat isn't ideal and I have an awkward shaped room (also neighbours) which rules out a conventional 5.1 system so I'm trying to evaluate the options I have and I keep hitting obstacles. My thoughts are below, any opinions or alternatives greatly appreciated.
1. Replace the AV amp with stereo + possible speaker upgrade
Logically a receiver with 8 amplifier chips in it is going to be beaten for stereo sound quality by one with 2, and I think this is quite a neat solution as I quite like a stereo set up and a future upgrade (if I moved) would leave me with a bedroom hifi system. However, it's not all that simple as any amp would need to deal with inputs from SkyHD, BluRay, and PS3 (potentially more if I added something to handle Airplay) and I was hoping that a DAC might help solve this, but from looking around it appears they top out at ~2 inputs. A proper AV receiver would handle naturally handle all these, but I feel it'd be wasted with just a pair of speakers.
2. A soundbar
Not sure on this as I'm a little sceptical on the quality that can be offered through a flat surface (I'd definitely need to audition one), and mounting it might be an issue - I wouldn't be able to fix it to a wall for instance.
3. Do nothing
My sound quality is fine, I don't need to change anything. My main reason for wanting to is that I know it could be significantly better, there is a possibility that I could move within the next year and that might just make decisions easier.
System mostly used for movies/tv and games, adding Airplay somehow would add some music to this but it'd be in the overwhelming minority. Budget is flexible, if I could get a significant upgrade for £500 I'd be comfortable with that, I'd need to think I was getting something special to go near the £1000 mark.
Thanks for your attention.
