Building Home Theatre with surround - need an amp

[markb]

Hi folks,

I recently joined this forum in the hope someone might be able to give me some advice on an audio query I have.

I recently built, from scratch, a home theatre PC running Windows media centre which is hooked up to my 40" LCD TV and it works great ! But it is currently just using the TV speakers for sound which is less than ideal.

There is a 7.1 audio header on the PC mother board which is Intel Azalia (HD audio) but I have nothing to connect this to. I could always add in another sound card if the HD audio is too exotic.

I also have a Sony DAV-S550 DVD player with 5.1 sound and speakers. Unfortunately this is an integrated unit with no facility for audio input and I don't need the DVD capability any more. A quick tear down revealed several boards, one looks like an amp but it seems to have digital inputs into three CXD9634Q chips so it seems this board is a decoder and an amp?

If I could somehow re-use some of that surround sound system and the speakers then it would surely save me a good few dollars on a new amp and speaker system.

Or is there such a thing as a cheap analog audio amplifier that I could use to drive the 4-ohm speakers that came with the Sony DVD player?

I'm not totally averse to picking up a soldering iron and making something cusom but my analog electronics knowledge is a little rusty and I'd prefer to buy a solution if it can be got for a reasonable price.

Any ideas welcome.

Thanks,

Mark

[Cal Weldon]

Hi Mark and welcome to the forums. You might wish to post your question in another thread as there is less traffic here in the introductions.