Sony Performance Bookshelf Speakers (SS-B3000)

A Receiver Transplant 

A new A/V receiver could bring a wealth of new entertainment options to your home theater. For example, new models come with smart apps that let you watch online video from Netflix, YouTube, and more. If your existing receiver doesn’t decode Blu-ray sound formats such as  DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby  TrueHD, a new unit can. A new receiver may also support more speakers, higher volume without distortion, and satellite or HD radio. 


Full-Range Speakers

 If your existing 5.1 system was an HTiB (home theater in a box), its satellite (surround) speakers may be relatively small and unable to reproduce lower frequency sounds. Swap those satellites for floorstanding speakers, which make much better, full-range (high/mid/low) sound (ad- just your receiver’s speaker settings  for full-range use.) Alternatively, replace only the front left and right satellites, and repurpose them as rear speakers for a 7.1-channel setup. 

Go Deep 

For greater gravitas and more radical rumbles, you can replace your subwoofer with a higher-wattage model that has a larger-diameter speaker. Alternatively, if your receiver is a 7.2- or 9.2-channel unit, it can support a second subwoofer for more volume at the low end. A second sub  on the opposite side of your TV can  also balance out the direction of the sound’s origin. (Deep bass is nondirectional in theory, but not always in practice, with HT subwoofers.)