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Home Theater Bypass , why am I hearing this now.

I have a Home Theater and when I upgraded my Onkyo to a Marantz it was a true Upgrade I was impressed, anyway like any other hobby I wanted to make improvements on top of what I just gained. The more I read the more I realize AVR HT receivers will never get you a tru HIFI experience because of the processing that takes place and a dedicated 2 ch is the only way to go ask Millercarbon he will surly be all over this one. I only have one room in my house that doubles as a home theater and listening room. I was ready to pick up a Prisma NP5 streamer (to move to my rack and network ) and a Denafrips ares Dac thinking I would get an upgrade to my source that is Tidal over my phone over the air currently( anything is better than this method). Im wondering if its a waste of time and money since I plan on using it with my AVR, then I stumbled onto guys talking about HT bypass for this reason. I haven't read or herd HT bypass yet on this Forum and wanted to know what you all thought, at some point i wanted to get a 8k marantz Processor and dedicated Amp but before I drop $7k I want to make sure I figure out this HT bypass because I want better High Rez audio from my HT system. 
ngiordano
vinylshadow
402 posts
 
From what I've read, millercarbon is right for the most part. Unless you buy an extremely good processor.
I've had the Classe SSP-800 for a long time and its 2 channel bypass is great. There is no digital anything in the stream. Analog signal gets sent to my Rowland Model 12 monoblocks unadulterated.

I just bought a PI Audio UberBuss so that should clean up any 'tricity noise very nicely. And it has a power factor correction of 1 which is great.
mikekollar's avatar
mikekollar
42 posts
 
Lots of opinions, lots of ways to go..... Here is what I did and maybe you are willing to spend more than me, but here is MY setup. Yamaha Aventage 7.2 AV receiver. Ok, perfect for movies.... done. Now, 2 channel stereo running into my Legacy Focus XD speakers, what to do. I looked at rotel that has HTBP functions but ended up with Emotiva pre-amp with HTBP into Emotiva power amp. This setup is perfect. Streamer runs into the pre amp and has nothing to do with the AV receiver and I am in 2 channel heaven. Then engage HT bypass and now in movie heaven. Emotiva makes nice equipment to accomodate all of this...... works for me!
surfmuz
375 posts
 
I would rather ignore bypass and separate HT track from music audio track. It’s not big deal to get another set of speakers for HT. I don’t know about movies but music audio will definitely benefits from the separation. 
mikekollar's avatar
mikekollar
42 posts
 
How is treating an AV receiver as a separate input (through HTBP) in a pre amp and a streamer in input 2 of a pre-amp NOT separation. In this case, the streamer has nothing to do with the AV receiver. It is truly just a streamer going to pre amp, going to power amp, going to speakers. You could disconnectthe AV receiver completely or leave it all hooked up.... no difference in listening to the 2 channel stereo in either case. Ridiculous and unecessary to have another set of mains in this case
big_greg
6,554 posts
 
Stating an opinion often and emphatically doesn't magically transform it into a fact, other than perhaps to the person stating it. 

Many of today's movies are made to be both a visual and sonic experience and a nice home theater system will allow you to enjoy the movie the same way, or in my experience, better than the theater experience.  How many theaters have you been to lately that only have two channels? 

If throwing away all of the location context you get from a well implemented surround system is "better" to you, cool.  If you personally don't have the budget or desire to put together a system that combines both home theater and two channel that doesn't mean it can't be done or shouldn't be done.  You can have both and you don't have to spend a fortune.

Before surround sound came out, I enjoyed watching movies with the sound coming out of two speakers.  That was better than the one little speaker in the TV.  But technology has marched on and I know for myself, after seeing and hearing Apocalypse Now and experiencing the Ride of the Valkyries scene in surround sound, I was sold and have never looked back.
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