Hate to ask......

Lots of great thoughts here...I read them all and enjoyed the dialogue. I used to have seperate systems, but a move to smaller digs in Europe forced me to combine them. Now I'm back in the good 'ol USA, but space will continue to constrain me to one system.

I agree heartily that trying to have your cake and eat it too isn't possible...but you can still make inteliigent tradeoffs and achieve both a satisfying HT experience (which I enjoy mostly with my wife and family) and a satisfying musical experience (which I often listen to alone).

I tried to get a thread started a few months back about acoustical treatments to achieve that goal. For example, I tried placing tube traps in front of my monitor during listening, to reduce acoustic reflections from the screen. It seemed to work...I recommend others with "traps" to try the same.

Any other ideas out there?

Rob

Get a projector! (not trying to crack wise), I think about a projector as the last step towards a more realistic home theater, getting the TV out of the way should improve the soundstage.

home theater?

I think 5 channel is a bunch of hot air

I have an extensive two channel setup that I use with a Proton 36" tv and dvd and I get excellent results, incredible sound and a moving sense. Why does one need to be tickled behind the ear to make the movie experience real?

I watch alot of music concert DVD's on my 2 channel setup and I am very happy with the sound. I've heard a few of these on 5.1 setups and what a joke. First of all, outside of some movies, the sound isn't recorded via a mic technique that truly captures the recording as 5 distinct channels.
And who would want to be sitting in the middle of a jazz combo when one can be out in front of them?

A recent listen to the Steely Dan Plush DVD, the background singers were sometimes in the center channel, sometimes hard in the back etc, whereas the two channel had them nicely balanced to the left like they were visually. And that's a dvd that was cleverly thought out by Roger Nichols no less!

My listening room is long and narrow 27 by 15 and I have the speakers along the far wall, I suppose for those listening in very deep rooms that the rear channels tend to fill things out and add a sense of depth & support instead of hearing the room reverberations.

Anyway great two channel audio with video seamed in correctly is my preference, and I don't like seeing excellent audio manufacturers and dealers go under while the theatre types are spending gobs of money on clearly poorer sounding setups that wow instead of produce music faithfully.

Tom