You bought a high definition television, and as soon as the initial infatuation with how great it looked wore off, you noticed how anemic your sound was. Explosions in a movie shouldn’t sound like they’re coming from a portable AM radio. It should sound like you ought to be running for cover.

It’s time to start thinking about upgrading the audio components of your home theater now that you’ve made the move to high definition, and the AV receiver is the foundation of that system. The good news is that excellent equipment can be had for as much or as little as your budget allows, so you don’t have to take out a second mortgage on your home to have movie theater-beating sound in your living room.

An AV receiver is actually three audio components in one chassis. An AV receiver is comprised of an amplifier, a preamp/processor and an FM/AM tuner. Because AV receivers have less space for more internal components, the quality of the amplifier section is generally not as robust as a dedicated amplifier, although there are flagship AV receivers that have better amplifier sections than lower end amps