When the decision has been made to buy upgrade a home entertainment system, it is wise to determine how much should be spent to make it a system that has quality, or ‘the most bang for the buck’.    Decide what your bankroll can handle and then start to research the possibilities of what can be afforded.

The most important factors in putting together a home entertainment system are the television and the A/V amplifier.  After that, all the adjuncts such as the kind of CD player, DVD player, gaming console, and speakers can be addressed.  

In choosing the A/V amplifier, there are several different functions that make it a premium receiver.  Does it have the capacity to switch all the audio and video source devices?  This means that it can take the source signals and execute switching in order to allow for listening or watching from all the sources such as a DVD player, CD player, VCR, HDTV receiver, iPod, MP3 player and so on.   Be certain the amplifier has more than enough input and output jacks to accomplish this.  Most of the newer amplifiers come equipped with at least one 5.1 channel analogue audio inputs to assist with multi-channelled inputs.   There needs to be digital audio connections as well.  This allows the system to take a digital signal and decode it through the receiver.  This makes the interference and degradation less apparent.  In newer models, there are two kinds of digital audio connections.  One is the optical and the other coaxial.  Look for the optical connection as it uses laser pulses to actually transmit information in fibre optic cables.  The coaxial uses a modulated radio frequency.

In order to achieve the highest quality in video reception, a component video connection is best.  Look for composite input jacks for all sources of video.  Most good A/V amplifiers will have S-Video input jacks.   Things have changed so rapidly over the past few years, it is smart to keep up with technology and make sure the component video connection is used in order to provide for high definition resolution and progressive scan video.  The receiver must be able to deliver video signals up to 50 megahertz (MHz) without any degradation or interference.  Some of the newer equipment can reach up to 100 MHz

When purchasing the A/V amplifier, be certain to remember that flexibility is key.  Although a little more money might be spent on this one item, it is generally the heart and soul of the entire system.  Do not make the mistake of buying cheap on this item as it will make the total difference in the outcome of your high performance system.