Excuse the ignorance, but whats the difference between a receiver and an amp. In building a Hi-Fi system I was looking at receiver + CD player + Speakers. Where if at all does an amp fit in? Any links that would outline the basics for me would be very helpful
An amplifier takes the signal from the CD Player or any other input source and amplifies it to drive the speakers. Amplifiers again are Pre-Amp and Power Amp (if both together then Integrated Amplifier) Whereas in a Receiver, there is an amplifier along with a radio tuner (Audio Receiver). And an AV Receiver is the one which has amplifier, Digital Signal Processor, or you can say simply the circuitary to process the signals for surround sound formats, etc to drive 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 speakers etc..
You would need just an Integrated Amplifier or separate Pre and Power Amps if you want to build a stereo setup, AV Receivers come into picture if you are going in for a complete Home Theatre, where you would want full surround sound.
This is a very basic explaination just to give u an idea. TO get into more details you can search in google and u can spend a lifetime reading about these
