Interconnects and Home Theater?


Bear with me folks, I'm kind of new to this game. Apologies for my ignorance in advance.

Q1) As far as I can tell there is no good reason to listen to music in surround sound as that's not the way the music is meant to be heard, correct? (Read on to see where I’m going with this, pls.)

Q2) Under that premise, then you only really need good ICs for the front channels and the center (so the timbres are matched during home theater use) but don’t really need really expensive ICs for the rear channels, correct? In that case, I can spend the majority of the money on the ICs for the front channels (to maximize musical listening sound) from the source to the pre/pro and the pre/pro to the amp, and save myself a little bit on the surround channel IC’s? Do I have this right?

Q3) Finally, do most of you try to use the same type of IC from the source all the way to the amp? I would think mixing flavors of ICs isn't desirable as you may get a compounding of weaknesses from one IC to the either (i.e. the undesirable bright qualities of one and the poor bass delivery of another).

My system is as follows: Krell HTS 7.1 pre/pro, Rotel RMB 1075 amp, Sonus Faber Grand Pianos, Solo, and Home speakers , Sony DVD/SACD 777ES, Analysis Plus Oval 9 for the front and center channel, Analysis Plus Oval 12 for the rears.

70% of the time the system will be used for 2 channel audio listening.

Thanks in advance.
alivadariu

Showing 1 response by sdcampbell

Unless you have very high quality rear/side surround speakers, it's unlikely that high-end interconnects for those channels is going to make any discernable difference in sound quality. Put your best interconnects on the front channels - L, C, and R -- where you will hear the difference. I also agree generally with Distortion's comment that there MAY be a valid reason to use the same brand of interconnect for all channels, but unless there is a vast difference in the quality of the front vs. rear interconnects (e.g., using the most expensive model for the front channels, and the cheapest model for the surrounds), you probably won't hear any difference.