My parents have a Sony STRDE495 AV amp
(http://www.richersounds.co.uk/index....l.php&p=301893) to be
exact and they are now looking to replace their old pair of speakers
(from 15 yr old Sony stereo).

They are currently happy with the sound quality from the speakers they
have but wish to reuse them elsewhere hence the need to buy something
new. They listen to CD a fair bit and also the radio and have not until
now been interested in surround sound of any sort. They are *not* hifi
buffs by any stretch of the imagination - for example, they are happy to
use the stand supplied interconnects (tried better ones - claim they
could hear no difference) so they are looking to spend a couple of
hundred quid max.

Big question is do they go for 5.1 setup or just a pair and carry on
ignoring the surround capabilities? They have a DVD player and have just
had Sky+ installed so they now have a couple of digital sources.

Ideally they want to purchase the speakers from richersounds as they
have had good experiences there before (as have I). Words of advice
before we go in on Monday to see what they have?

One option if they have any left is the Tannoy FX5.1 set
(http://www.richersounds.com/index.ph....php&p=301719). I have
found good reviews on the net for this and Tannoy is a company that I
have had a decent pair of speakers from before - Biggest concern I have
is what do these sort of speakers sound like for CD and radio?

Another option would be something cheaper for the surround (maybe a set
like the Yamaha NSP100 -
http://www.richersounds.com/index.ph...l.php&p=301580 ) and then
throw the fronts away and use a pair of cheap floor standers (again a
quick look at Richersounds website suggests something like the Mission
M73i as an option). This combination would still come in under the 200
quid mark and I would imagine would give better performance from stereo
sources.

Of course, the other option would be to mix and match fronts, center and
rears from whatever is a good deal. Concerns with this are that getting
a balance would be difficult - I also think that they would prefer small
speakers for the rears as they haven't got huge amounts of room.

So, is something like the FX5.1 setup likely to give adequate CD play
back (comparable to a "HiFi" stack that cost around 300 quid 15yrs ago)?
Or should they be looking for decent (cheap) fronts and then fill in
the rest someother time? As my dad says, "we want something that sounds
ok" - given the sources are a sony 5disc CD player and the tuner in a
99quid AV amp spending large amounts of cash on speakers is just not
going to happen.

Darren - can't believe that some tiny satelites can sound all that good
no matter what sub is used!