Hi do I need " Home Audio Receiver" if I want to hook up surround sound speakers for home theater?

For clarification you will need a "Home Theater Receiver". A Home Audio Receiver is typically two channels only, a left and a right. A Home Theater Receiver has five to seven channels of decoding. Five channels is the minimal industry standard of surround sound.

Look for a home theater receiver that decodes both Dobly digital and DTS audio. Most in todays stores will do this.

Keep in mind that surround sound only works with DVDs and a few movies that air on premium networks and some HD channels. Most television shows are recorded in stereo which is a left and right channel only.

Once you have a home theater receiver, you will need the front left, center, right , right surround,and left surroundspeakers to consider plus a subwoofer that you will need.

After that the DVD player will round out one of the final pieces of equipment you will need other than your tv.

Don't get the Bose system. Bose is overpriced and I personally don't like the way they sound (muddy bass, missing midrange, and hissy treble).

For about that much money, you can get a new Klipsch Quintet system (5 speakers) and a powered SW-10 subwoofer on eBay from a factory-authorized Klipsch dealer. And, it will blow away anything Bose has to offer.

Regarding a receiver, Yamaha is about the best for inexpensive surround sound receivers. You can pick up a new Yamaha 5.1 surround sound receiver with about 70 watts per channel for about $200. And, you'll be very pleased with that system.

You will need an amplifier as well as the speakers, don't buy Bose, far better is available for far less.