My mom has just moved, and as I was taking apart her audio setup I realized it is not really working for her. Rather than set it all up again at the new house I told her I would investigate options for a more modern approach.
What she has:
Setup #1
An ancient receiver - no HDMI ports, just audio and yellow video out
A 5-DVD carousel
1 pair wired speakers
Cable DVR
All of this was sort-of hooked up to the TV, but she never had the cable audio hooked up to the receiver - it comes out of the TV. If she remembered the exact sequence, she could play a DVD and have sound coming out of the speakers. (She managed this about 50% of the time.)
Mostly she listened to CD's, which was pretty straightforward.
Setup #2
Another pair of wired speakers
Some kind of old iPod receiver (you literally stick it on top). Brand unknown (a tag that fell off). I think she won it. It's hooked up to my old iPod Nano (oh yeah), but she can't update the music on it because the iTunes doesn't recognize it and wants to resynch it, which would wipe the music she does have on it. It must have a built in pre-amp, because it works with...
An old (old) turntable, hooked up to the generic receiver. This is important to her because she listens to lots of old albums.
I do have a USB turntable that I don't use that I could give to her. That may help.
She would play more DVDs (e.g. from library), if she had a setup that was easier for her.
I'm thinking some sort of wireless setup, but the need to have the turntable is a tough one. I was also toying with getting her on Spotify. (She literally asked me, "How would I listen to Ann Mortifee without my turntable?" and I checked and she's on Spotify. But she's not keen on the steaming aspect.
The new house is a ranch-style, and she has wifi, although her router is pretty old. She has an iPhone 5, and a Windows 7 PC. She is fairly capable of learning new tech if she sets her mind to it, and she did work in IT for 30 years, but she mostly doesn't bother, especially if she can outsource this stuff to me. :) I think wireless would be easiest, as I'm not keen to crawl around her attic with speaker wire, and having wires all over would be unacceptable. She could spend a few thousand dollars, but she's not an audiophile and I don't want her to walk into a store and get crazily upsold on stuff she doesn't need.
Any experts out there with suggestions? I was thinking about Sonos for the whole house, but it looks like the Connect Amp only has 1 input, which would mean she could have DVD but not turntable.
If I Google home theater setups etc. I either get guides for crazy serious setups, or those box situations. Help?