Home theatre and Musical Experience

As Panzercat mentioned, one of the big drawbacks with combining audio and HT systems (which I was forced to due when I moved to a smaller house in the UK) is having a TV sitting between your speakers (unless you fork out the long green for front projection, which I hope to do soon!). I recommend trying to keep the L/R speakers at least somewhat forward of the screen, and using tube traps either in front of the screen (during music listening only, obviously), or just inboard of the L/R speakers, to reduce reflections off the TV that will muddy the soundstage or create a hard center image with no depth. Take the time to really experiment with room treatment...even simple things like bookshelves, furniture, wall hangings, etc. It makes for a much more invloving experience, for both music and HT.

Steve,

I saw in some of your other threads that you are now considering McCormack as your amplification. I think this is good move. Good deals on used DNA 0.5s and DNA 1s are easy to be had. And if you so incline in the future, you can have Steve McCormack upgrade the amp driving your mains to one of his mods to enhance you music listening sessions.

Your journey will be fun and expensive. Ever since I got bit by the audio/music bug I'm finding that out everyday. My HT setup has remained the same for the last 2 years, but my music system is always in metamorphosis.

Doing the research is sometimes as fun as actually finally getting the stuff. There's no harm in taking your time.

Enjoy!

Steve, I recently took my first plunge into HT. I've been a audiophile for 20 years but was always nervous about making the move to HT, because music still remains 75-80% of my listening. I bought a Proceed PAV with Classe CA-200 and Classe CAV-75 amps used for less than $3k. I'm not wealthy but I like good sound. The Proceed PAV doesn't have DD or DTS, but I couldn't find a <$1500 pre/pro that did such a good job on music. The Dolby Pro Logic does a good enough job for my limited HT watching. I also went with a seperate stereo amp for music. The Classe CA-200 drives my mains and sounds better to me than any multi-channel amp I've heard on 2 channel music. When I play HT, I turn on the CAV-75 to drive the surrounds. To me I have the best of both worlds, I know the pre/pro could have better HT setup but with my budget limitations and my listening habits I chose a used pre/pro that's strength is music over HT. How much you value or listen to music and your budget will determine where you go, there are many different directions to go in. I hope this helps.

Steve...Ditto on the same problem..I stumbled on a possible solution.....I've been a big fan of Mac/Jbl combo over the years, and have had various amps/preamps...Now I wanted all that "surround" stuff, so I went out and bought a Mac 7205 5 ch amp, c42 preamp, and msd4 processor...For sheer sonic fidelity, I was sadly disappointed....So I sold my 7205, and went back to a combination of higher power amps for the 5 channels.......An improvement, but still missing what I had been getting from my good old 2 channel stereo. For music listening, which is 95% of the time, the processor seemed to be the weak link in the system.

In the "pro-logic" mode, the msd4 threw far too much stuff into the center channel, and the front l and r became, well, "muddled".......I figured I was destined to go back to stereo for my music listening......I had an idea, a very simple one, and ran it by the guys down at the stereo store....They said I shouldn't do this, so naturally, I went home and tried it immediatly.

Here's what I did. You guys tell me if I'm going to wreck my equipment...Basicly, I wanted the best of both worlds. The full richness of my stereo, plus the ambiance of the surround......Soooooo, why not combine both signals.? For starters, I inserted a "monster " "Y" fitting into the L and R input of my main front amp. Now I have 2 female inputs for L and R. From my c42 preamp, I took my MAIN OUT and ran it to one of the 2 "Y" inputs to my main front amp that I described. Then, from my msd4 processor, I took the FRONT L & R and hooked it to the vacant input on my "Y" connector.......So what am I really doing here---I'm mixing 2 signals to my front L&R....The best stereo signal, un-muddled by the processor, and the processors signal....My other channels, sub, center, and surround l and r were left undisturbed. MAN, WHAT A DIFFERENCE...I didn't get off that couch till well after 2AM....AND....My equipment didn't blow up like my "knowledgeable professionals" down at the stereo store said.......I preserved 100% of the rich, beautiful Stereo signal, AND the full "ambiance" of my surround...WOW !! And I was ready to chuck the whole system and go back to Stereo...Any comments?? Anybody else tried this?? By the way, I am able to operate the volume control on BOTH the pre-amp AND processor from my only remote...The one that came with the C42...So once I get the volumes generally matched manually, I use the remote......I'm ecstatic!! Macfan Al...Beautiful Lake Tahoe, NV

Hi Steve,
I had the same situation 5 months ago when I had DENON AVR-1601 which was good in HT but very muddy in music. I tried to change speakers to NHT and B&W but no luck. I decided to go for separates starting from a new power-amp (EAD PowerMaster 500), a new pre/pro (Kinergetics Chiro C-802). The result was much more musical. Then , in search of musical sound, I a separate DACs and CD trasport into my system which is very satisfied. But, you know, before I got the right DAC for my system I bought 3 DACs (ADCOM GDA-600, Theta Pro BasicII, and EAD 700MKII) to test with my system. Furthermore that I bought a Camelot Dragon 5.1 Jitter reduction. Then finally, got a EAD TM Signature to replace my existing Pre/Proc, DACS, Transport, and Jitter Reducer.

I've been buying more than 20 equipments within 5 month period. I just want to tell you that I can't stop upgrading my system anymore. Everytime I upgrade and it sounds better, I never satisfied enough to stop upgrading. It seem to me that anything would be better if I keep upgrading. Just want to ask you if you sure to come this way?

In case you really want to upgrade you system. My suggestion: If your CD player is good enough ( I mean the internal DAC in your CD Player), buy a good integrated amp (Classe, Rotel, or NAD) for separate music listening. Doing this way will save you a lot of money from upgrading to separates. Or if you have money to spend and want real quality, go for separates. Good luck.

Supakit S.