Analog tube amp/pre-amp for home theater use?


I've got a Marantz 8B & 7C amp/pre amp hooked up to Living Voice Avatar speakers. Love it for listening to music. Contemplating hooking it up in our home theater. Does it make sense and is it possible to do this given the digital cable requirements of cable & DVD players? Any suggestions for additional equipment needed or alternatives appreciated.
lilavine
I use my HH Scott 222D in my video rig (2.1 only using DVD, no surround) and am amazed at how much of the movie's soundtrack fills the room. In ZERO hurry to go 5.1 and sacrifice the musicality for back fill.
I would start by simply connecting the left and right channel analog audio outputs of the cable box and dvd player directly into unused inputs of the 7C (not phono-level inputs, of course).

That won't give you surround sound, of course, and the internal dacs in the cable box and dvd player will most likely not be as good as in a quality external dac, but for purposes of watching cable programs and movies the results could very conceivably prove to be satisfactory. And in any event, there would be nothing lost by trying that first.

Best regards,
-- Al
thanks all. i'm fairly new to this. not currently running a home theater, just setting one up. Does it make sense to get a processor?
That sure does sound better than splitting those two nice pieces of equipment up Kal !!!
The 7C has a stepped volume control, iirc. If that is so, you can devote one input to L/R HT bypass as long as (1) you calibrate your mch system with the volume on the 7C at a suitable level and (2) you use that setting every time you pay the HT system.

Kal
I doubt you could incorporate the equipment as is into the home theater, but if you find a suitable preamp to replace the 7C with that has a HT bypass circuit you could then use the 8B and Living Voice speakers for both 2 channel music listening and as the front left and Right speakers in the home theater. What speakers are you currently using in the home theater?