How to get 2 Channel and Home theater in one packa

The 5800 (or similar receiver) is a perfectly legitimate option; however, it depends on what you're after. If you want to optimize 2 channel listening, there's no way a receiver will do that. I don't have to imagine it, I tried it, for some time, in the same room. Indeed, a receiver probably won't optimize the home theater listening either. Another, probably better quality option is to have a great pre-pro as suggested by some of the posters above with great outboard power amps, and drive your 2 channel using the digital bypass available on most pre-pros. This can yield excellent 2 channel performance, but not as good as can be gotten with a great 2 channel preamp.

That's not to say that the 2 channel (and HT) performance can't be excellent. My experience (and preference) is that separates sound better $ for $.

I also don't think it's necessarily true that a 5800 is any less "clugey" than a separates approach. Indeed an argument can be made it's more of a cluge. At the end of the day the only thing you save is a handful of interconnects. I have a Sony ES receiver in my living room system, and the cabling is a mess.

I was asking similar quesion to myself and fellow A'goners.

I ended up with http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?vdone&1097693275&read&3&4&

I'm pretty satisfied with it, and I'm planning to upgrade to 568 for the 2ch improvement.

With this set up - HT is Exellent, and 2CH is Very nice.

However, If I start again from scratch, I might consider getting 2 separate systems going for bettter 2ch and very nice 5ch receiver or less expensive pre/pro with 5ch amps such as Outlaw.

oh, my reasoning of totally separate systems over 'combo' system is because of the matching speakers and amp problem.

One important thing on HT is to get the matching set of speakers.

If you have a expensive set of fronts for 2ch, you are forced to get the rest of the expensive matching center and rears.

Also, it's better to kind of 'match' the amps, too, unless you don't care about the overall quality of HT, which case, why bother in the first place, just get a HarmanKardon Receiver and decent speaker package.

Balancing is important in HT.

Thus, overall you might end up spending more than you need trying to do the combo way.

Bdgregory is exactly correct. The love of music AND HT can be enjoyed by all in all price ranges thanks to pricing of receivers. I have been at this for a number of years and have spent more than I care to remember. I also started with a CC receiver and speakers that I was happy with then started the evolution up the ladder to higher end receivers/speakers then to low budget separates to what I consider a nice but reasonable system. From experience can you enjoy both media with a receiver, YES. If you listen AND can afford, and I cannot, a $200,000 two channel system will it sound better than the mentioned above, YES! So, buy what you can afford and enjoy. BTW, this is a fun hobby as well as a passion!

In my mind, the whole issue gets a little tricky when you factor in the sonic advantages of the new multi-channel formats (HD-DVD / Blu-ray) that are at our doorstep. I have an older integrated amp based system that I've used for 2 channel audio and HT. I decided it was time to upgrade and decided to create a completely new 2 channel system for audio and use my existing components for HT until the whole high-definition format battle finds a winner. (It seems to me like a real poor time to upgrade HT electronics due to the format war and also that you'll want HDMI 1.3 to take full advantage of the new formats). I tend to buy the best equipment I can afford and keep if for a long time. Also my use and passion is about 2/3 audio and 1/3 video.

So I've spent a lot of time on A'gon, reading the industry rags, and auditioning equipment. Now that I've figured out what I want for a 2 channel system and have started to get serious about looking for the various components on A'gon, I'm also getting a little "anxious" that the new uncompressed formats will offer such superior sonics that one of the new formats (likely Blu-ray)will leave me kicking my own arse that I put all that money into a separate 2 channel system instead of waiting to put together a killer "combo" system. This has gotten much more complicated that it needs to be. Audio neurosis.