Home theatre and Musical Experience

So much info and so many different ways to go about it. With the budget I get to work with it will be a slow process. I suppose each step will be an upgrade and as long as I can see improvement there will be a lot of enjoyment. Today I think that the first will be a new amp that will run off the pre outs of the receiver for a while. Should improve the sound and will be able to get new speakers befor to long (possibly the magnepan mmg's). Have to decide between a 2, 4, or 5 channel but leaning to a 2 that will drive the mains. Considering the bryston 2bst, arragon 4004, but have also read great things about the anthem. Have considered the citation 7.1 that would be good later on but only if it is as musical as the others. The pre with ht pass through sound good too so may have to do a little research on pre's with this feature.
Thanks again for all the input. The help here offsets some of the frustration of being in a town with only 2 upperend stores. Even they don't handle any of the equiptment that I am considering.
Steve

This truly is a good thread. I posted something similar a while back with lesser results. It's good to see that the forum is both growing AND maintaining a high level of usable info. Kudos to all of you for helping out and sharing your experiences and knowledge.

Like many others here, i've tried to do a dual purpose system before and keep finding out just how poor most of the preamp / processors really sound on music. I REALLY found this out when i substituted one of my 2 channel preamps for the last HT processor that i had and was blown away. I would REALLY like to keep this preamp ( Marsh MSD P-2000) in the system and use an external processor, but the preamp has no processor loop and i can't find a simple way around this. As such, i keep coming back to checking into the Proceed pre / processor or the Adcom GFP-750 ( because it DOES have a processor loop ) but just haven't gotten around to it. I've got 7 channels of amplification just waiting to be kicked in the ass. Anybody have any suggestions ? Are you folks with the GFP-750 REALLY happy with them in terms of music performance ??? Anybody check into the Anthem pre / processor ??? Sean
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Steve, this can be done but as mentioned above it is expensive to do, this is what I have come to experience. First of all I run Martin aerius i's which the cost of a good amp has made my journey a pricey one. I'm using a bat vk200 amp to drive those little bastards, but it has brought me pleasure. I also have a dc-1 that I do my 2 ch and ht with. The dc-1 does great with ht and pretty good with 2 ch, but I have realized to get what I want I need a bat tube pre the vk30, which has a pass thru for when you listen to ht. I have listened to my current setup with a bat 3i pre and it gave me a big, big smile. So to get the best of both worlds I will eventually own a pre for 2 ch and processor for ht. Like I said it does get expensive, but its probably do to my speakers being so picky. One day my audio heaven will come, anyone looking to donate a Bat vk30. You may find better luck starting with 2 ch and a pre that has the pass thru feature. I think its very hard to have both with just one pre. Good luck with your adventure. pete

Sean,

I don't have the GFP 750 in my system but have listened to it extensively in local audio emporia. It is good beyond all proportion to its cost. The Stereophile crew has it in the Class A category. Yes, I know the criticisms of that bunch, but they usually offer soundly conceived opinions and tell you how they got there.

In fact, I'm thinking of buying the 750 for a second system because of its price/performance ratio - off the scale. It is an incredible bargain.

Sean, have you listened to a Proceed in your system? I have the older PAV, like I mentioned previously, because I just moved to HT this year and was very nervous. Previous preamps were Audio Research and Coda, since music is my priority, I ventured apprehensively into HT. I've been very happy with the PAV. In fact I had one gentleman offer me $400 more than I paid for it. He told me he is big into high end and friends with many audio salesmen, and they all thought the PAV better sonically with 2 channel than the AVP. I just bought it 'cause it sounded better than any other <$1500 pre/pro I auditioned. I might be missing awesome DTS or whatever, but music is 80% of my listening, and I would rather have a great pre with a adequite pro than vice versa. I haven't been able to demo the AVP and PAV side by side, but I think the Proceed line is very good in 2 channel and just might be what you're looking for.