Hate to ask......

Like others here, I have two separate systems since I have two separate living areas. The HT has a modified Pioneer DVD, Lexicon, Sunfire and Paradigm Reference (v2) speakers. The main system is for stereo only and is a real joy since I upgraded to the Sierra Denali amps. When I watch movies, the sound is important and fun. When I listen to the stereo, the sound is critical and hits a much deeper emotional center. There is no visual distraction.

Perhaps the reason some people hate HT is because so many folks spend a lot of money and then "settle" for a less fulfilling (IMHO) audio experience. But they think they have it all. I dunno. On the other hand, few of these HT fans would probably have sprung for a decent stereo only system. I'm glad I didn't start with HT. I might not have gone further.

Cheers. Guenther (silent first e)

OK Hifiho, I gotta see these pictures of the NHT 2.5s rear wall-mounted. Sounds kooky and kool.

Inscrutable: Of course. What was I thinking (or not thinking).

Inscrutable, surely you CAN have them spread out too much. Like i said, a lot of how they need to be set-up has to do with the size of the speakers, their dispersion pattern and the listening distance. It's the same thing that we run into for 2 channel use. You have to adjust them according to each individual situation design and the room acoustics.

As to having a center to anchor the dialogue for those not sitting in the sweetspot, that comes back to room dimensions and speaker dispersion. If the room is narrow and the speakers have wide dispersion, you would run into a problem with "overlap" between the three channels. Not only does this hurt overall performance, but the imaging is now blurred and channel seperation less distinct.

In a situation like that ( narrow room ), i would probably forego a center and just use good sized mains. One could even have the tv audio turned on at low level just to center the soundstage somewhat while the mains would do the majority of volume and side to side effects. Like anything else, it's a balancing act. Sean
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Mid-fi HT sound quality is below hi-end! I mistakenly thought good HT also meant good music. After years of suffering through "bad" music on my Denon AVR 5600, Def Tech BP 2000, and SONY DVD C3000, I added the Classe 150 integrated amp and ARCAM 92 CD to run my Def Tech's and the sound improvement was astounding! Furthermore, I pre-amped out from the Denon to the Classe for the front left & right HT channels and got that same improved sound quality for my HT. Before the Classe/ARCAM I was ready to ax my Def Techs but now I love the newly configured HT/music sound too much. Lesson? If you love music, using mid fi HT gear will not be satisfying so that's why I'm "down" on HT.