What did you add to your 2 channel system to do HT?

Thanks, and I did post a few photos of the revised room front with the TV and Wilson Watch in place.

@bugredmachine You had some nice stuff sitting in boxes.  It's great that you're able to use it!  :)

What a coincidence this thread exists as I just added in HT gear to my 2 channel room. I was going to build a custom cabinet and rig the living room for a mini HT set-up but my wife was not totally down with that. So I begrudgingly came up with a plan to add the HT gear to my fully tuned 2 channel set-up without buggering up any of the 2 channel sound.

I had all this gear in boxes and crates for years now that I needed to either use or get rid of: Wilson Watch center, Anthem 720, Oppo 4k player, Rythmik F12G, and 1000 movies.

I ordered a custom Audio Art 25 foot speaker cable for the Watch and built a shelf over the amp between the speakers to provide the proper angle. I had room on the rack for the Anthem and Oppo and I had left pull ropes in the floor joists to pull cabling across the room for sub and surrounds. I picked up a brand new set of Monitor dipole surrounds as that is all the space I could afford. And I just received a new SVS PB1000 Pro last week to give me dual subs. I'm running the Anthem via Bypass through the ARC Ref 5SE and using the Anthem for just the center and surrounds. I'm not sure I will ever go past 5.2 to my last set-up which was 7.2.4 in Kentucky.

I was hoping for and it did result in fantastic sound. Probably the best I ever had for a HT set-up. Even better than the 8 seat theater I had years ago. It seems that dropping in the HT gear on top of a well-tuned 2 channel was a winning formula.

I didn't want to blow the look of the room, so I did my best to hide the 75 inch LG OLED behind the front absorbers and use a lift to raise it up for movies. I moved 2 wall panels to the floor on wheeled supports so for those 2 I just slide them right and left to unblock the lower corners of the tv. Now I am just stuck with a 24 inch wide by 6 inch high piece of the tv screen visible when in stealth 2 channel mode.

I'm very happy with this now but the one unresolved issue is seating. I have to open this up to others to sit in for moving watching and adding 2 more chairs outboard is an option or getting a sofa and losing arms while in the sweet spot is not so cool. Plus, normal reclining couches don't recline the center seat unless you go real wide and that overwhelms the feel of the room. I have not updated any photos on my Tennessee System page, but you can see I don't have copious amounts of space for fat sofas. Still working that one.

Friggin' sounds awesome though.

I’m coming at it from my perspective.  I have a dedicated listening room for my 2 channel gear and 2 HT systems elsewhere in the home.  One of these is in the living room and we pretty much use for video only , although I do have an Oppo  203 and a CA CXN 2 channel streamer there.  The streamer mainly plays Internet Radio as background music while we eat.  In the basement my second HT system is split between video and audio.  Both HT systems are 5.1 with identical Anthem AVR.

  I don’t need a 2 channel pass through, therefore.  I like the Anthem AVR, obviously, but for me it’s probably overkill in the Living Room.  A competent Yamaha or Denon at half the price would be fine there, and one of the expensive processors would surely be waisted 

OK.  It's an excellent movie.  👍👍

I'm watching Land of Bad on Netflix.  Lots of explosions.  Looks like a good movie. 👍

@mahler123 there is nothing to say that high end 2 channel sound and high end HT(or any level HT) can't coexist in the same room unless it is room treatments.  

In my system they coexist and the only shared components are the 2 channel amp and he front speakers.  

My 2 channel sound system stands alone.  No shared components when operating in 2 channel mode.

My HT system routes a preamp level signal to a second input on my amp to drive my front speakers.  So maybe the front speakers and amp cost 10x what the rest of the HT system costs, but they are there for the 2 channel system and certainly don't hurt the HT system, which sounds excellent.  So I don't consider that "overkill".  I use a Marantz Cinema 50 to drive the surround speakers and do the decoding for the front.  I have a large center speaker in the center of my rack that just sits there quietyly during 2 channel sound and is driven by the Marantz for HT.

I know my Marantz reciever reciever and 2000 lbs of floorstanding surround speakers and  subs would be considered mid fi by some HT enthusiasts but I find it to be pretty darn good.

Very happy with both systems.

Jerry

@mahler123 I have a number of concert videos on DVD and Blu-ray.  A few of them have really good audio. Most don't.

You definitely wouldn't build a system like mine if your emphasis was on movies. Mine does OK for me, but it would be pretty lacking compared to a high dollar dedicated home theater. 

I need to get The Last Waltz.  Thanks for mentioning it. 

I wonder if the question of the asymptote applies more to to HT than to 2 channel listening.  I ‘m sure that a mega bucks processor et al will sound better for video than a Mid Fi AVR, but would the expensive gear be sonic overkill for videos?.  Even  the most glitzy sound effects can be competently handled by an AVR, and most soundtracks are meant to be background or ambience.  There aren’t to many Alexander Nevsky (Prokofiev) or The Last Waltz type movies out there, where the music was conceived as at least coequal to the video content.  Now if you watch a lot of concert videos, or Blu Ray’s of operas, you might prioritize the sound in a HT system.

If you are happy with it, then just use it that way, and enjoy! Sounds like you got lucky with the front 3 channel speakers. 

My HT receiver does 13ch with 4 sub outs, also has pre-outs for all CH, with the ability to mix/match. It also allows me to have different speaker arrangements for different inputs. Also a dedicated 2ch setup with or with out subs

If you can do anything like that, do the 2ch setup, with all the good gear, then have a separate configuration for HT, using your good amp for 2ch, with the internal amp doing the rest.  HT really sounds better with more than one sub. IMHO, HT needs more subs over 2ch. But I'm sure many will disagree. 

Finally got everything sorted on mine, so pictures no longer fall off the walls when watching action movies at reference volume. 

I "added" a soundbar. No interest in making a dual purpose system and a few hundred for a decent sound bar suffices for me. YMMV

@mswale Yeah, I realize that the Adcom amp is overkill, but I had it laying around, so I'm using it.  My two-channel amp is a much higher quality Coda.

The Sonus Faber center speaker is actually fairly well matched to my Von Schweikert mains.  That was just dumb luck as much as anything.  I have an older center channel speaker by Von Schweikert and the Sonus Faber is actually a better match. 

I have two REL S/510 subwoofers that I use for two channel.  They are great for that purpose, but my larger SVS does better for explosions, etc.  It sits in the back of the room and seems to work well there. It does nothing when I play two channel audio.

I'm really not trying to improve upon the HT end.  Just explaining what I have and wondered what other people did.  I'm not a real home theater enthusiast. My two channel system is much higher quality that the HT gear.

What are you trying to get out of it? Your center channel amp is overkill! If you have a HT receiver, use the HT receiver amp for HT, then use your good amps for 2ch. For HT it is very important that all speakers are timber matched, as sound goes around the room the tone is matched just as the volume/db should be. You also have REL subs? Why not just use them and not another one? Feel like you got all the gear and just want to use it, you can most likely get better sound using less, and making it simpler. 

I have 2 separate systems, one for HT and one for 2ch. Neither does the other's job well. Will tell you when the HT is all setup correctly, it's awesome! Mine is better then most theaters. 

5.1 is good, when you step up to 7.2.4 or something like that it becomes magical. You can hear a door shut in space, as well where the plane is coming from, how high, is is climbing or diving. It trips my dogs out all the time. 

The feature set of the Parasound P6 preamp can’t be beat for this purpose. Sonically it doesn’t seem to do any harm. No grain/grunge. Just seems to disappear.

I replaced my surround processor, amps, and speakers with a Sony HT A9 setup for immersive sound.  A big surprise was how good Roon streamed to the setup via HDMI from the Nucleus sounds.  Ultimate decluttering.

@carlsbad2 

That's correct.  When I run 2 channel, none of the HT components are in the signal path. 

My two REL subs have both speaker level and LFE line level inputs that can be used simultaneously with different gain controls for each.  When I do HT, they are pulling double duty. 

@sls883 But the HT designation and the assigned volume only applies to the HT use of the system, the 2 channel hi-fi use is just normal.  

Thanks.   The speakers are really sweet and show off the amp well.

jerry

@carlsbad2 I should mention that you don't have to assign the HT designation to any of the inputs, so if you don't need it, you don't use it. 

@carlsbad2 Nice system.  I've not heard of those speakers, but they look quite interesting with four 8" woofer.  

My conrad-johnson preamps had a true theatre pass through.  The front channels from the surround processor went straight through the preamp to my amplifier.  My LTA is not that way and it confused me at first when I was trying to level match the 5 channels.  LTA picked some random output level for one of the inputs that is labeled HT and locked it there.  I contacted them to verify this. 

@sls883 I didn’t really answer your question. My 2 channel system is all digital, Grimm streamer, Lampizator DAC, Akustika Eterna Amp, Horning Eufrodite PM65 Speakers. I had the amp custom made with 2 inputs (functions like an HT bypass). So I just select the input that the front 2 channels of my HT system are hooked to.

I have a Marantz Cinema 50 AV receiver. I haven’t added dirac live yet, I just use the onboard software and the microphone to set it up. I have Tekton center channel and surrounds (DIs, Encores, and Electron SEs).

I have HSU Research subs.

Jerry

@g2the2nd with HT bypass, there is never any HT circuitry, not even a jumper wire, in your 2 channel system.  you can work on your 2 channel system all you want, upgrade it forever, and it is completely independent.  When it is time to watch a movie, your 2 channel system functions as your front 2 channels. 

Many have the wrong impression that the HT Bypass requires your 2 channel system to go through a bypass system for 2 channel sound.  It is just the opposite, your HT bypass sends the front 2 channels of the movie through a circuit that bypasses the preamp volume control to your 2 channel amp.  by bypassing the preamp, the HT decoder is now driving and controlling the volume of your 2 channel system.

Jerry

I use a completely separate system for video - Marantz AV 7702 Mk2, Rowland 5, Mission Cyrus 782, Vandersteen VSM-1 (x4), Hsu VTF-15H Mk 2 (x2) and a 110" screen and Queen Bee projector.

My 2 channel HT system integration goal is great 2 channel, good enough HT.

Vantas S50A - It has an HT processor, sub out and 3 channel amp. The front R/L output is sent to my system through my preamp input so my main speakers (ProAc monitors or LRS depending on my mood) are my fronts. I have B&W Rock Solid Monitors for rears mounted on the ceiling and  B&W CC6 S2 center. I have a Rythmic 15 in sub that is used for music and HT. I have to turn the sub volume up for HT.

Through the Vantas the volume tracks with my main amp as well so my 2 channel preamp controls the whole HT set up. The only issue is that Vantas went belly up so the HT decoder is a few generations out of date.

No HT equipment is in my 2 channel signal path.

The HT system is far from SOTA, but makes great movie nights.

@carlsbad2 yeah, they're not the best, but decent for a ceiling mounted speaker.  I forget to mention that I'm using a small Martin Logan subwoofer with the two surround speakers.  That helps some.

My furniture doesn't really work with floor standers in the rear. I have a pair of Von Schweikert VR-4 sitting unused, but they're pretty huge.

I had been using some tiny surrounds by Cambridge Audio thinking the rears were mostly just ambience. I hooked up the PSB and ML sub and I hear all kinds of stuff now coming from the rear channels. 

Your weakness is your surround speakers.  I use floorstanders for all of them.  I use 7.2 

Your HT bypass makes it easy to do right.

Jerry