You know the answer. I have explained many times. HT processors are so bad that even bypass costs you sound quality. Took me roughly two full years trying everything I could to have quality stereo and HT in the same room.
Bottom line, like everything else, it is a compromise. You can have true SOTA stereo, giving up only a tiny little bit you will hardly even notice by having a screen where it would be optimal to have a diffuser. With stereo you will also give up gimmicky surround effects - but this will be more than compensated for by the incredible realism of your enveloping stereo sound stage.
OR you can have crappy stereo with lots of channels of crappy components, because no magic HT wand can change the fact you only have so much money and so divided by two is higher quality than divided by 7.1. Your stereo will suck, and so will your movie soundtracks- only the effects will be better.
But not the bass, since with the stereo the money you didn’t throw away on center and surrounds will buy you a SOTA DBA.
It really is no contest, and this is even before factoring in that let’s face it, you watch movies with your eyes and so are far less critical of sound quality. You listen to music best with your eyes closed, your hearing is ten times better than with movies.
So HT is asking you to spend a fortune on a lot of crap that will never make movies sound good (can’t!) and WILL make music sound worse.
This decision to nix multichannel is the easiest most obvious decision out there- except for the fact all the advertising world has herded all the sheeple into the same pen. Which is close to penitentiary. Where you go for penance. Which is what it feels like listening to music on a system with HT.
How’s that?
Bottom line, like everything else, it is a compromise. You can have true SOTA stereo, giving up only a tiny little bit you will hardly even notice by having a screen where it would be optimal to have a diffuser. With stereo you will also give up gimmicky surround effects - but this will be more than compensated for by the incredible realism of your enveloping stereo sound stage.
OR you can have crappy stereo with lots of channels of crappy components, because no magic HT wand can change the fact you only have so much money and so divided by two is higher quality than divided by 7.1. Your stereo will suck, and so will your movie soundtracks- only the effects will be better.
But not the bass, since with the stereo the money you didn’t throw away on center and surrounds will buy you a SOTA DBA.
It really is no contest, and this is even before factoring in that let’s face it, you watch movies with your eyes and so are far less critical of sound quality. You listen to music best with your eyes closed, your hearing is ten times better than with movies.
So HT is asking you to spend a fortune on a lot of crap that will never make movies sound good (can’t!) and WILL make music sound worse.
This decision to nix multichannel is the easiest most obvious decision out there- except for the fact all the advertising world has herded all the sheeple into the same pen. Which is close to penitentiary. Where you go for penance. Which is what it feels like listening to music on a system with HT.
How’s that?