do you have a sperate audio and HT system?

GF,

If you remember from a couple of years ago, I was also an advocate of your type of integrated system. I've done exactly as you have and had a nice 2-channel system with an HT bypass loop to add on an HT receiver. It worked very well and is a very good idea for any 2-channel person who would like to add HT to their room. My suggestion, as it has been for a few years, is to build the best 2-channel system you can, then add an inexpensive quality receiver for HT duties. The surround speakers don't have to be very expensive either, as the amount of information that is directed to them is limited.

That said, I recently seperated my systems. They reside in the same rack, but I put 3 Jamo A510 "Art" speakers high across the front wall so they would be out of the way of my 2-channel speakers. They are placed much wider than my 2-cannel speakers and provide a wider sound for movies. The other nice thing about it is now all 3 of my front speakers are identical.

For anyone interested in 2-channel music, but wanting decent HT in the same room, an integrated system works just fine and it is much less expensive than trying to build 2 independant specialized systems. You will have un-compromised 2-channel music and adequate HT.

Enjoy,

TIC

I have a combined system -- I use a Channel Islands passive preamp for 2-channel, and run the front channel outputs from my Lexicon DC-1 into the passive for HT listening. That way, no gain matching issues -- just turn the passive volume to max, and you're good to go.

That said, I WOULD have two systems if I had another room to spare . . . . sigh . . . .

Pat

I've owned a two channel system of one kind or another for a long time. I'm fortunate that I have enough room to be able to maintain two separate systems. Home theater for me is entertainment and it's fun to enjoy surround sound with a well filmed movie on a big screen RPTV. HOWEVER, real pleasure for me is a well recorded piece of music reproduced on an outstanding two channel setup. There may be some day that I'll have to combine the two, but until then nothing touches late night listening in a darkened room with the tubes glowing listening to an old favorite.

I separate my HT from my high-performance, audio-only systems. I feel that there's no place for my RPTV between my speakers and it seems to me that there is a bass EQ incompatibility (not to mention upper midrange) between the audio and video formats. Since I don't want to compromise my imaging or keep adjusting my system EQ back and forth for DVD or CD, my solution is to optimize each type of system for its intended purpose.

I guess I could set an integrated system up to sound acceptable with either format, but I'd definitely consider it a rather large compromise. People have done it and even fooled themselves into thinking it's okay, but for my own requirements, I need to keep them separate. Period. I hope that's clear!

I'm still a stereo guy. I did play with putting a T.V. between my speakers a few months ago. Borrowed a mid-price Dolby rec and tried a few movies. It was fun for sure, and actually sounded better to me than a lot of HTs I've heard. The TV screen hurt the stereo imaging however so I took it out. Someday I plan on doing a real HT, it will likely be separate because of the screen issue as much as anything.