Hate to ask......

albert: and i thought i was compulsive! i'd call your system(s) seperate but equal. BTW, wouldn't it take a lot less effort and save more space to have a projector and pull-down screen. ( i suspect that you have thought of or tried this and have rejected it for valid reasons.) good listening AND watching! -kelly

Kelly, Correct about the quality of the pull down screen. The two problems I have concerning it are money and ambient room light. Being a photographer I love natural light. I had a huge hole cut my living room ceiling about ten years ago. It measures about 14 X 18 feet and is topped with multiple clear Plexiglas skylights. The view out to the blue sky and the big trees hanging over it makes working and listening in the room a pleasure.

With the summer daylight this far South, it is not nightfall until after 9:00 PM at night, I have probably outsmarted myself in getting a projector, unless I buy some expensive mechanized light blocking shades.

The family can still watch in this room with the rear projector Pioneer and see the image quite well, even during the day. I had at one time considered having both types of televisions, but there is always something needing my energy and money that keeps me from it.

One point that hasn't been mentioned is the effect of having extra (idle) speakers sitting in the room when trying to enjoy 2-channel sound. I saw a web page once (from a local audio shop) that described the following phenomenon:

Play a 2-channel recording at your standard listening level, and go around to each of your surround speakers and sub. Look at the movement of their cones, or touch the cones and feel the resonance (there will be some). Now, turn on the surrounds and sub only and play them at a volume where their movement/resonance levels match those that you observed in the 2-channel mode. That is the approximately the level of "noise" your extra speakers are creating. Just as rooms have resonances that degrade sound, extra speakers (DESIGNED to make noise!) merely sitting in the room will have the same effect.

I love my combo HT/Music system, but I also know that the extra speakers and the television that sits in between the L/R speakers (distorting their imaging qualities) come with a price. It's one that I'm willing to live with, and one that I've found to be worth it, but the cost exists nonetheless.

Felthove: This has always been my pet peeve about auditioning speakers in shops (which are full of other speakers). Perhaps some sort of speaker covers for the center and surrounds, might help to clear up this problem.

Hey, Tim. The home theatre is where I get to go crazy, do the research, and buy the gear. The audio system is my husband's realm, though I do get a say in things.
We don't have the best room, but it works. Someday.... yeah, we all say that, eh?
anyway,I have been learning alot and meeting nice people and upgrading little by litte and having some fun and feeling some success. Right now, I am negotiating something with Roger at Innersound on a ribbon center channel that he is working on. We have the ISIS ESL's as the main speakers, so I am excited at the prospect of the ribbon panel. It is the journey that brings me such pleasure.
By the way, I found one of your movies on DVD the other day. The surround sound really added to overall experience.