I always ran them separately to optimize both- different needs. At one point I had two Mid-Atlantic racks 6 feet high stuffed with gear for home theatre, and like a crazy man, was running all ARC tube amps except for the multiple woofers, in an old school projection system using Meridian gear on the front end for theatre. I even had these cool, old school monitors that rack mounted and could see two sources at once. It was a significant build out and not my first one, either.
The hi-fi required different placement of the speakers rather than L C R for theatre and I was less interested in being able to reproduce volcano eruptions and T-Rex stomping on the hi-fi. I guess you could do it and reach a happy medium; my gut reaction is that you are going to compromise in one direction or another, but perhaps not.
I kind of lost interest in super duper home theatre-- that’s an area where there has been real trickle down. Line doublers used to cost 15k, big projectors were double that and well, you could go nuts on the sound for picture stuff. Now, I’m pretty happy in my dotage with a big OLED and small home theatre running a McI basic amp and a 5.1 speaker set up with a good sub. At some point, I’ll upgrade the processor but run 4k straight into the TV. The cost of the home theatre stuff has not only come down dramatically but is there still a market for hi end home theatre processors? At one point, there were quite a few prepros that were comparable in price to a very good line stage or more. I guess I’m getting old, or willing to settle for less on the home theatre front, but the source material is better (in some cases) and the performance for dollar or yen or whatever has improved as time has gone on. I can’t say the same for hi-fi.
My viewing habits also changed. Yes, we watch in a dark room, backlit, but I don’t have a whole room just dedicated to a theatre any more. Just don’t use space that way.
The hi-fi has a dedicated room and then some, for records, cleaning equipment, etc.
