best of both worlds can u get a musical multi amp?


i wonder if it is possible to get a multichannel amp that is just as musical as it is ht effective..i own a dreadnaught 2 which i really like, though most of the reading i do suggests dedicated 2 channel amps give you the best sound...any thoughts?
dan001
ooo i feel no need to downgrade..i love this amp..besides its heat issues..i am just curious as to am i getting the best stereo sound from a multi channel...or..if that is a misnomer
Hi,
I used to have Dreadnaught II, and then switched to BAT 75 SE, and I'll venture a thought, that BAT is significantly better for music reproduction. Actually BAT makes MC amp VK- 6200, and coming from VK himself, " many people bought it strictly for 2-CH systems". I haven't heard it myself, though.
From my personal experience I can say, that I found a dedicated high quality stereo system ( 2-ch preamp with HT bypass, mono blocks for the front channels), integrated into HT set-up (HT pro-, MCH amp for the front and rear channels), to be a more flexible and capable solution.
I also owned the Dreadnaught II as well as other multi-channel amps from Conrad Johnson and Krell. I can tell you that emphatically none of these could compare to a large number of equally priced and even lower priced two channel amps in terms of stereo (2-channel performance). The Dreadnaught lasted two weeks in my system before I sold it, to a guy where it lasted one week - due to its performance in 2-channel operation. I bought into the rave reviews on this amps claim to perform in 2-channel, as did the guy who bought it from me.

Is it a bad amp? No, but there are a large number of 2-channel amps at a fraction of its new price that will outperform it in 2-channel mode. This is not a knock on just the Dreadnaught though, this has been my experience with all the multi-channel amps to date. Of course, the rest of your system will help determine the performance in both HT and 2-channel operation (as a note, I am also a believer from experience that the pre/pros cannot perform in 2-channel mode at or near the same level as two channel preamps - having gone through many pre/pros [McIntosh/Acurus/B&K/Krell/etc. .] and preamps [Aesthetix/Cary/BAT/ARC/Jeff Rowland/etc. . .]).