starting a 5.1 or 7.1 surround

Hi Oldpuck! I hope that the screen name shows a love for hockey. It's always nice to meet a fellow-fan online.

I think it would be helpful to know what you are thinking about in terms of budget. That will help determine some of the recommendations and options. Also, do you have any aesthetic constraints?

Regarding your question, Adcom makes and has made great equipment for years. Adcom was synonymous with solid value for years--especially in the 1990s. If you have a good working Adcom amp, then you have a good foundation and can reuse that amp in a home theater setup and then supplement it with an additional multichannel amp. You can put the adcom to power your front speakers or the sides or rear speakers.

I'm not familiar with the Infinity Kappa series, so if you like the way they sound, then that is great! You want your front three speakers ideally to be perfectly timbre matched, so using the Kappa speakers as side or rear surrounds may make the most sense.

The Adcom tuner is a 2-channel preamp if I recall so you can still use it for your sources to play 2-channel music if you like the way it sounds and performs or you can retire it and use a new home theater preamp. So to summarize:

1) You can reuse the Adcom Amp and supplement it with a new, 3 or 5 channel multichannel amp (3 channel if going 5.1 or 5 channel if going 7.1)
2) You can reuse the Infinity speakers if you don't have aesthetic limitations.
3) You will probably end up retiring the Adcom preamp

Hope that's a good start. Those are just my thoughts and opinions.

Have fun and good luck!

Theo

Glenn,

I took a quick peek at the Denon AVR-2113CI. I'm not familiar with the unit. It doesn't appear to have "Pre outs" so you would not be able to reuse your Adcom amp with this receiver. Some receivers have "pre out" jacks that allow you to use an external amplifier on some of the speakers. Check out www.accessories4less.com for great deals on Denon systems. I'm really a fan of supporting local dealers, but you can get refurbished gear with full warranty at 30%-50% off. If your price point is around $600 you should be able to get a great deal on a receiver there. I'd also suggest checking your local audiophile and home theater dealers and see if they have any demo gear if you don't want to pay new or retail. I've never heard the ADCOM amp, but my hunch would be that it would perform better than the amplifier section of a receiver in this price range (but that's pure conjecture).

I'm with you re: Hockey. Any game is a great game. I wish they'd end the silly strike. Since you're a fan from the 60's, I met Gordy Howe some years ago and pulled out some signed pics of his. I haven't played in years and years. I get a chance to skate a handful of times each winter; but playing in a league just hasn't been in my schedule unfortunately. I miss skating and playing on a regular basis.