First time post here, I'm rather new to the whole home theater thing. I've been enjoying my DVD 5.1 sound for about a year now.

Anyway on to the question, right now I have an older model Sony receiver that is 5.1 "ready" and I have my DVD player doing the decoding. My question is am I going to notice that much of a difference by going to a 5.1 decoding receiver instead of having my DVD player decoding??

I have a very very modest setup compared to most of you with Bose(I know they are not the best but I got a screamin deal on'em) 301 series 4 as my front speakers and Bose 151's as my rears and a Bose center channel. Best I could do on a college budget

For all practical purposes I don't think you'll be able tell a difference in DD. You don't have DTS, but it's not the end of the world. I'd spend money on getting a sub and then better front speakers first. Then I'd move the existing fronts to the rear and get a center channel to match the new front speakers. Only then would I look into replacing the receiver.

Whoops I also have an Infinity 8" powered sub, forgot to mention that.

I'm working on saving for better fronts, but the ones I want are quite out of my budget now

the biggest thing you're missing out on at present is DTS, unless your player decodes DTS (few do).

I don't want this to get into a DD vs DTS debate, but personally, given the option between the two, I always watch with the DTS audio track engaged.

What price range would you be looking at for your new receiver, should you decide to get one?

Personally, I'd also do speakers first. but then I'm not a bose fan, either...