Stereo receivers are designed for music and audio, while home theater receivers are designed to serve as a hub for all of your A/V equipment (including your video equipment). A home theater receiver will often have more channels to support surround sound, it will typically have HDMI inputs and at least one HDMI output, and it’ll be optimized with both audio and video features like 4K passthrough and Dolby audio. Check out our guide to learn more about the differences between stereo and home theater receivers.