I was aware of how old it is when I was playing with all the wires behind our new television. The back of our present receiver has no HDMI inputs or outputs. It cannot decode the new Dolby or DTS formats either. I do like the fact the present system is only 5.1 as we've no place to mount an extra two side ones required in the 7.1 setups. So, as soon I noted an Onkyo TX-SR393 open-box special on Amazon for two bills plus change, I decided I will toss my trusty, yet ancient, receiver. Our speakers are old and discoloured a bit, but moving them would be hard and throwing them out would seem wasteful. The receiver arrives next week sometime.
Then upon reading the technical literature, I learned that the new receiver is 5.1.2 which means there are two 'high' speakers for Dolby Atmos reproduction. So even though I stayed with my tired old speakers, I must add two more for a complete, Atmos environment. I just ordered these little Onkyo speakers as well ...
London Drugs will ship these to me tomorrow. They are designed to sit on the front, left and right speakers. They are meant to point upwards and bounce sound off the ceiling. Still, even with their unexpected purchase, my system will be pretty damned economical because I often stretch dollars until I can hear them scream. Soon, I'll hear most screaming in Dolby Atmos!
Note: The following day, on April 20th, I cancelled the Amazon order because when up during the night, I read the product manual I found online. This would have been a great unit to simply replace the existing receiver; however, it could only be set up as normal 5.1 or 3.1 with Atmos height channels. I read about how Atmos may become important in music distribution as well as for movies and I wanted a more robust solution. I ordered an Onkyo HT-S5800 5.1.2 Channel Dolby Atmos Home Theatre System through the same Ontario supplier. It was quite a steal as it is now a close-out item. Also, fortunately, London Drugs called the next day to tell me they were out of stock on the speakers which were now unnecessary. I will be getting rid of all the parts of my present home theatre system for only a bit more cash.