Due to advice from this board I purchased a Denon AVR 1803 and a set of Energy Take 5.2 + 8.2 sub. They have been wonderful for my HT setup, sounds great on everything from Gladiator to Evil Dead....

....but now, I am trying to get some good simple stereo sound and the surrounds are not working. The sub gets no info until I crank up the level on the sub itself and the sound out of the surrounds/center even if I go 5ch stereo is just not as good as I'd like.

So a few questions. I currently have a dvd player (JVC XV-S500) running the rca audio L and R to the CD input on the Denon.

Should I get a standard CD player, and run it to a totally seperate receiver that isn't a 5.1 etc HT unit?

...or should I run 2 normal speakers off the Denon for the front L and R and just play CDs in normal stereo? If so what would be a decent pair of not horribly expensive speakers?

Thanks for any advice,
greg