Moved from 2 channel to Home Theatre - Regrets?

for myself...I considered for a long time getting into the 5.1 gig, but I realize that I listen to music more when I have a better 2 channel system and I really don't feel like I miss that much with regards to a movie soundtrack when watching in stereo. How much money etc etc etc worth just to hear a bullet whiz by or hear better special effects. I still feel like I get some of the surround experience out of a 2 channel setup just with proper speaker placement. I have found that what improves the soundstage with 2 channel music also improves my 2 channel HT experience.

so if it were me...and I were in your particular situation, I would ditch all the surround stuff and up the 2channel system. (just make sure your speakers are way infront of your t.v. or get a flatscreen/front projection system so the t.v. doesn't kill the sound)

just my 2c fwiw

cheers

Ellery

You all got that right. We all fell into that trap.Music Meant more to us than HT. I also went back to 2 channel. Tube Amps, Tube Pre. what a difference. I listen to HT through my 2 channel rig and it sounds much better. But when I listen to Old blue eyes Im in a different world

If you buy bad hometheater equipment you will get bad results.

If you want a exact diagram of the equipment not to buy and exactly how not to put it together then all the post above should serve you well;

Lets cover some never do's

Never use Martin Logans for Home Theater
Never buy a Sony A/V receiver (will people ever learn)
Lexicon's Don't sound good, logic 7 is like Peanut Butter in your wine and the 2 channel performance is sub par.
Theta.....nice two channel stuff, don't you think?

Now exactly what you should do(Yes i'm being pushy :))and if you follow my instructions you'll have everything you want despite the Nay sayers.

Sell;
Aragon 4004, its too bright and way too much power for your speakers

The PSB's, no longer needed

Sell that terrible quad CD player before it breaks, any reasonable pre pro outperforms that CD player by miles.

Get rid of that outlaw, will give you a headache

Sell all that fancy boy cables if you can get a good price because its pointless when you have tone controls on the pre/pro.

Now Buy,

3 more Europa's or if the budget allows 3 Callistos'...you get the picture.

Pick an appropriate SVS subwoofer from their catalog

And then get the new processor in descending order of prefferability the New G series Meridian processor, An older Meridian processor ie 568, Anthem AVM-20.2, B&K Reference 50 Series II.

Get an Audio Refinement multi-5 amplifier (if you stick with the smaller GMA's)

and use Analysis Plus Blue Oval custom speaker cable and AP Oval One or your add to your current interconnect cables more of the same.

You might be able to make this transition for <$3000 if you bought all new gear but many items as you know can be had used, a used 568.2 would be a super pickup, same with the amplifier.

But the point is, your 2 channel setup will be preserved with a much improved DAC and with the load divided over 5 Green mountain speakers and a sub. Great home theater and great 2 channel if you want it. And if you get a Meridian, you 2 channel days are over, especially if you listen to classical music.

Keep in mind if you can tweak 2 speakers to make a big difference imagine the difference you can make when you have 6 speakers to tweak. If you have questions about the setup email me if you like.

I am not a dealer for any of the products I listed to buy but I am selling surround sound as a solution.

I slowly moved from 2channel to HT and although I, at one point (and sometimes still), have had the thought of moving back to HT floating about, I quite enjoy the full cinema experience and I also have a great room for the setup so I have stayed the course on HT and really don't regret it. I'm with CinematicSystems on several points. I can't really voice opinions on some of the gear he is suggesting you dump, I would follow his lead on the suggestion that a balanced speaker set up of 5 Europas (or other GMA) and an appropriate sub (my suggestion being a REL) would be quite nice. I'm not sure if GMA makes a dedicated center channel, but matching the front and center goes a long way towards creating a balanced sound. I'd also advise that a nice processor may go a long way towards beefing up your sound. I have a Primare processor that I feel is quite 'musical' and I've also compared it's 2-channel digital processing to that of the Camelot DVD/CD player w/ Swiss Anagram DAC's and it's not that far off. On that note, I think you might find a processor that serves nicely as a 2-channel DAC as well. At the very least, make sure it has an analog bypass to accomodate not HT gear. You could probably finish off your cabling with Signal Cable and even sell off the Audience cables and replace with Signal in order to apply the cash elsewhere. If you felt like justifying the extra expense, pick up Audience cables on A'Gon to round out the package. With regards to amps, there's obviously lots of choices and even more opinions, but I think the Audio Refinement is a solid recommendation. You could probably pick up a really nice three-channel amp and relegate your Aragon to rear channel duty as well. I did this initially, and feel it's a decent way to go. A single 5 channel amp does, however, balance the sound and does reduce the number of 'boxes' in the rack and this isn't a bad thing at all. Speaker placement is of course, mucho important once everything is settled. I'd also suggest that your choice of DVD player can go a long way towards improving picture quality. I have a projector, so these improvements are magnified, but even with a smaller screen it is quite relevant. One of the newer Denon or Rotel players would be a good choice and may even provide you with good 2-channel audio, at the very least serving as decent transports for a HT processor. Good luck and enjoy!

you are correct in a sense, but you seem to be unwilling to recognize that some of us *WILL* pay the extra to have multichannel done right. i optimized my system for multichannel music, and then added a DD/DTS decoder so i can run movies through it as well. it can be done without compromise. it's all about doing it properly. i still consider my setup to be a music-first setup, despite the dvd player, ld player, cable-box, projector, etc. because that's how i designed it. i just happen to play movies through it as well.

i can't agree with anybody who says they get more enjoyment out of two channel and that's the end-of-the-story for them. to me, a *properly* done multichannel setup with a *properly* done multichannel recording brings forth very substantial improvements in experience and realism.

i'm not talking about applying pro-logic decoding to cd's, either, i mean SACDs and DVD-As that were specifically recorded for multichannel. some are poorly done, true, but when it's done right, two-channel simoly cannot capture the experience as well. much like mono cannot capture depth like stereo can, having more channels expands the possibilities and realism of music. classical recordings take on a realism and sense of space that boggles the mind and more experimental-rock/pop recordings have amazing new options.

i'm sure that there are some out there, but i cannot fathom anybody listening to DSOTM, Avalon, Up, or the Downward Spiral in multichannel being able to listen to the stereo recording of it afterward and proclaiming it better. the same goes for the MLP and Living Stereo 3-channel recordings i have. they sound more real in the multichannel mode.

so, in short - multichannel is more expensive and is harder to properly set-up. this is true. there is a relative dearth of recordings available that truly ulitize the format to its fullest potential. this is also true. but to state that nobody is willing to do it properly is false. and to state that it can't be better than 2-channel is (IMHO) false.

to state that it's not worth the money/effort to you is very well your choice. but i implore you to seek out and hear a setup done well so you know what's possible before you dismiss it entirely.