This has been the story of my life for the last year. I hate to even think of how much money I've spent trying to build the universal system only to find out that I... well... failed.
Bear in mind that my system is comprised of separates so I have some flexibility with some of the things I'm able to try. You won't get away with this if you're using a receiver. I've spent stupid money on my listening room and did so with a home theater engineering-first approach. I have a beautiful system with Levinson amps and a Classe surround processor. It's everything I ever wanted and more for watching movies but I do have a music collection that I've amassed over the course of the last 30 years and it just falls flat in stereo on my HT system.
Because my marriage depends on NOT having a truck load of gear eating up our living space I've heavily modified the walls and deployed wisdom insight in-walls. Their sound fidelity coupled with my Levinson amps does exactly what I want but the Classe is the piece that deadens stereo to the same aggravating swill that spawned this discussion thread.
Go figure though, the SP is more or less a computer and it's asked to a whole lot in terms of algorithmic decoding and channel separation all while passing video streams and somehow keeping it all synchronized. A top notch stereo preamp does as little as possible in order to transmit the purest possible signal from source to amp.
I've hit on what I refused to call a permanent solution because as my poor wife knows, I will spend more money to get it done the right way... eventually. The reason I say this is not a permanent solution is because I've added complexity into the signal path but I have to say it's a really big improvement.
What I've done as a proof of concept (and as an interim solution) is put a Kramer VS-4X 4x1 Balanced Stereo Audio Switcher (XLR) in front of my L/R channel amps so I can switch my L/R mains between the Classe surround processor and a stereo preamp. I've played with a number of different stereo preamps and in each case I've been thrilled with the results. I'm currently using to an old Aragon Aurum with 2-channel sources running through that. The results have been way beyond my expectations.
For about $200, I'm now able to switch back and forth between surround and stereo and it solved my dilemma (and my marriage) for the time being. Of course I won't live with a switching device in the middle of my main L/R signal path forever. I'll end up with another set of speakers and amps purely for stereo listening because I'm dumb like that. What I will say is that something like this may work for you. Right now and for the next year or two it's working for me. It's a HUGE improvement!
Bear in mind that my system is comprised of separates so I have some flexibility with some of the things I'm able to try. You won't get away with this if you're using a receiver. I've spent stupid money on my listening room and did so with a home theater engineering-first approach. I have a beautiful system with Levinson amps and a Classe surround processor. It's everything I ever wanted and more for watching movies but I do have a music collection that I've amassed over the course of the last 30 years and it just falls flat in stereo on my HT system.
Because my marriage depends on NOT having a truck load of gear eating up our living space I've heavily modified the walls and deployed wisdom insight in-walls. Their sound fidelity coupled with my Levinson amps does exactly what I want but the Classe is the piece that deadens stereo to the same aggravating swill that spawned this discussion thread.
Go figure though, the SP is more or less a computer and it's asked to a whole lot in terms of algorithmic decoding and channel separation all while passing video streams and somehow keeping it all synchronized. A top notch stereo preamp does as little as possible in order to transmit the purest possible signal from source to amp.
I've hit on what I refused to call a permanent solution because as my poor wife knows, I will spend more money to get it done the right way... eventually. The reason I say this is not a permanent solution is because I've added complexity into the signal path but I have to say it's a really big improvement.
What I've done as a proof of concept (and as an interim solution) is put a Kramer VS-4X 4x1 Balanced Stereo Audio Switcher (XLR) in front of my L/R channel amps so I can switch my L/R mains between the Classe surround processor and a stereo preamp. I've played with a number of different stereo preamps and in each case I've been thrilled with the results. I'm currently using to an old Aragon Aurum with 2-channel sources running through that. The results have been way beyond my expectations.
For about $200, I'm now able to switch back and forth between surround and stereo and it solved my dilemma (and my marriage) for the time being. Of course I won't live with a switching device in the middle of my main L/R signal path forever. I'll end up with another set of speakers and amps purely for stereo listening because I'm dumb like that. What I will say is that something like this may work for you. Right now and for the next year or two it's working for me. It's a HUGE improvement!