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[maid]

I am curious to get opinions as to which would be better.

A new sound card or new AV amp

as we like to have DTS Dolby sound etc and was thinking of upgrading.

[fitbrit]

If your current AV receiver doesn't have discrete multi-channel analog inputs, you will not gain anything from getting a new sound card. You'd be better off getting an AV receiver with HDMI, that can accept and decode a bitstream, or lossless LPCM.

[maid]

Not knowing much about AV receivers. can you recommend any without being too expensive.

[SamuelMaki]

Not knowing much about AV receivers. can you recommend any without being too expensive.

Any hdmi and HD-Audio compatible should be enough... So get the cheapest one (And make sure your speakers work with it...). I have just switched from Yamaha rx-v3900 to Onkyo tx-sr309 and I have about same sound quality... Speakers are more important than AVR, so I would suggest you to buy cheapest AVR and invest more to the speakers... I bought my Onkyo for 70€, but I did get special price...

[maid]

In Australia the Yamaha rx-v3900 is far more expensive then the Onkyo tx-sr309???

[SamuelMaki]

In Australia the Yamaha rx-v3900 is far more expensive then the Onkyo tx-sr309???

Yes, it is! I bought mine couple years ago for 2k€... But now I donīt have strong financial position anymore, so I sold it (and my projector, Martin Loganīs and other things...) and I bought cheaper one (Onkyo) to replace it... My advice is, that do not invest for over 500€ AVR, because they are usually the same as below 500€, but have microphonical calibraton (which I can do myself, and it didnīt make any big impact at my living room...). When buying a "low-end" AVR, double check you can put your speakers to it and which ohms it supports... Any AVR which supports HD-audio is really good and if it has hdmi 1.4 (for 3d in the future...) it would be perfect. So, buy the cheapest one

[maid]

I think we need new Satellite speakers with more ummph.

Ours are 35 watts per channel