I am a novice and would love some insight from an expert (or experts).
I am just sick of having to turn my volume up to hear what is being
said in a movie and then blasted out of my seat seconds later by a car
crash or a tidal wave or whatever.

My system: VCR, DVD, and TV audio ouput goes to a consumer amp and
then on to two pretty good speakers.

I bought a Peak Limiter on ebay. It is an Alesis 3630 compressor
(dual channel compressor limiter with gate). I'm pretty sure I can
make a cable than connects the RCA plugs from my DVD system to the 1/4
inch plugs of my Peak Limiter, and then another one to connect back to
the amp. But, that leaves me with VCR movies still being a problem.

Certainly, I can insert another component (a reciever) into this and
have the DVD, VCR and TV go into that reciever, and then have that go
into the Peak Limiter, and on to the amp and finally to the speakers -
which I would like to call plan B.

My question is, would it work - without damaging the amp or the
speakers in any way - to just insert the Peak Limiter between the amp
and the speakers? I have never heard of anyone doing this.

Lastly, there is a port on each channel in this Compressor called
"Side Chain, Tip = return, Ring =send". For my intented purposes, it
is okay for me to never know or care what this is for? Otherwise,
could someone help me understand what I need to do about this?