Hello everyone, I've got a problem that seems a little complex and confusing to me but hopefully will be simple for you pros out there. I've been tasked with helping my father upgrade the audio setup in his living room where he watches TV and likes to listen to the occasional CD and LP on his turntable. Until recently he was running the TV audio through an AIWA 3CD mini system he purchased from Costco. Recently the tape deck and CD changer on that unit stopped working.

My father is newly retired and is spending more time with the entertainment center than he has in the past and would like to fix the problem and possibly upgrade in the process. I have a budget of roughly $1500 to $2000 for the project. He's hard of hearing and often complains about being unable to clearly understand what people on TV shows are saying. He says he's happy with the little plastic 2-way speakers from his AIWA system but I'm inclined to think that larger, better quality loudspeakers might help the situation quite a bit. Then again, I'm not entirely sure. I know what would benefit him most would be a pair of hearing aids but trying to convince him of that is currently a losing battle.

The TV in this scenario is about three years old, it's a CRT TV, not HD enabled as far as I know, he just has basic cable, no HD boxes of any kind. Currently I think the setup is something along the lines of cable from wall into DVD player, s-video cable from DVD player to TV with audio out to the mini system on RCA cables.

Now if you were presented with this problem, what would you do?

I hope I've provided enough information, I'm not sure what I may or may not have left out. Any help with this would really be appreciated. Since his mini system died a few days ago he's been after me to come up with a solution.

Thanks in advance, I really appreciate the help offered by the members of this forum.

Why don't you talk directly with your father and find out what he wants? I'm sure CostCo carries an equivalent mini-system to replace the broken one.

- Steve O.

Well I have spoken with him and having visited Costco with him, there is no equivalent available. In essence, given his current setup, if you had $1500 to $2000 to spend what would you spend it on to get the maximum bang for your buck?

With a budget of $1500 to $2000 you can purchase separate components. It sounds like the turntable, TV, and DVD player are ok so they don't need to be replaced for now. With that in mind you should look into the following components:

1. A/V Receiver - $300 to $500. This is the heart of the system. All components will be plugged into this, and the video from the DVD player and cable box will then go to the TV. Something like the Onkyo 575 would work.
2. Speakers - $700 to $1000. You can either purchase two floorstanding speakers or a 5.1 surround package. Does he mainly listen to music or watch TV/DVD's?
3. Cassette Deck - $150
4. CD Player - $150
5. Universal Remote - < $200. This would definitely be needed since you will be dealing with five or six separate components. I would recommend a Harmony remote.
6. Cables/Speaker Wire - < $100