This is an interesting thread as I just tweaked my system over the weekend to add in HT. I have a rather high end two channel stereo set up in my large living room. I have been pretty much 100 percent analog music driven; however I grabbed a deal around the holidays from Axiom Audio on a pair of custom made (satin knotty pine veneer) QS10 surround speakers. I thought it might be fun to install the surrounds in the room and put a surplus Parasound A51 power amp into service as it's been sitting on a shelf for the past 2 years.
My main set up is a VPI Ares 3 turntable with the SME Series IV tonearm, Ortofon A90 MC to a Whest PS30.RDT SE 2019 phono stage and all of this feeds an Anthem AVM60 which is a wonderful preamp/4K switching audio processor with a ton of adjustability. I run it with no room correction at all. The power amps are a pair of Anthem M1 monoblocks fed with dedicated 240 V/15amp circuits and each amp puts out 2000 watts per channel into a pair of Bryston signature series Model T main speakers with the PX1 external crossovers.... great speakers!!! I have heard the KEF's and the B&W's and many others; in my opinion, the Model T's blow the other offerings out of the water. I also have three subwoofers in the room spaced at 90/180/270 degree layout from the front main speakers. The subs are all built by Axiom/Bryston.
The living room is around 10,000 cubic feet in size with an 18 foot vaulted ceiling; so it's a large area to fill with sound (hence all of the power)
With all of the above said, I then decided to try out the HT format in this set up as I have a very good processor, the AVM 60 and the spare multichannel amp. Again, I am pretty much all vinyl, but I thought it would be fun to test out some films. I installed the Axiom QS10 surrounds, which are nice speakers with 5 drivers per speaker (using the same tweeters and mid drivers as used in the Bryston Model T's and the High power 6.5 inch woofer as used in the Axiom LFR 1100 floor speakers). I picked up a Sony X800 Blu-ray player yesterday and installed my A51 amp to feed the center and two surrounds.
First impressions: I really enjoyed the Super Bowl half time show in surround, I then put on an older DVD I had in stock of Black Hawk Down and it was very impressive with the surround sound. So my observation from all of this is that you can definitely have the best of both worlds, a top notch two channel stereo system AND HT if you are willing to spend the money on the components. I just happened to have a retired out A51 which was replaced a couple of years ago by the M1 mono blocks, so for me it didn't take much to set this up; I only had to buy the surrounds and some balanced interconnects from Blue Jeans Cable. I also had an older Def-tech center speaker kicking around.
OP, if you have not decided on your speakers yet, I would really suggest that you go to Axiom Audio's website and look over their offerings. The main speakers they have are the LFR1100's in both omnidirectional and fully active which just came out. The LFR1100's are a slimmed down version of the Bryston Model T's and far less expensive (they sell direct to consumer vs. through the dealer network as Bryston does, but similar build quality). They will play much like the Model T's but just not as much horsepower if you don't need to fill a massive space like I am dealing with.
My main set up is a VPI Ares 3 turntable with the SME Series IV tonearm, Ortofon A90 MC to a Whest PS30.RDT SE 2019 phono stage and all of this feeds an Anthem AVM60 which is a wonderful preamp/4K switching audio processor with a ton of adjustability. I run it with no room correction at all. The power amps are a pair of Anthem M1 monoblocks fed with dedicated 240 V/15amp circuits and each amp puts out 2000 watts per channel into a pair of Bryston signature series Model T main speakers with the PX1 external crossovers.... great speakers!!! I have heard the KEF's and the B&W's and many others; in my opinion, the Model T's blow the other offerings out of the water. I also have three subwoofers in the room spaced at 90/180/270 degree layout from the front main speakers. The subs are all built by Axiom/Bryston.
The living room is around 10,000 cubic feet in size with an 18 foot vaulted ceiling; so it's a large area to fill with sound (hence all of the power)
With all of the above said, I then decided to try out the HT format in this set up as I have a very good processor, the AVM 60 and the spare multichannel amp. Again, I am pretty much all vinyl, but I thought it would be fun to test out some films. I installed the Axiom QS10 surrounds, which are nice speakers with 5 drivers per speaker (using the same tweeters and mid drivers as used in the Bryston Model T's and the High power 6.5 inch woofer as used in the Axiom LFR 1100 floor speakers). I picked up a Sony X800 Blu-ray player yesterday and installed my A51 amp to feed the center and two surrounds.
First impressions: I really enjoyed the Super Bowl half time show in surround, I then put on an older DVD I had in stock of Black Hawk Down and it was very impressive with the surround sound. So my observation from all of this is that you can definitely have the best of both worlds, a top notch two channel stereo system AND HT if you are willing to spend the money on the components. I just happened to have a retired out A51 which was replaced a couple of years ago by the M1 mono blocks, so for me it didn't take much to set this up; I only had to buy the surrounds and some balanced interconnects from Blue Jeans Cable. I also had an older Def-tech center speaker kicking around.
OP, if you have not decided on your speakers yet, I would really suggest that you go to Axiom Audio's website and look over their offerings. The main speakers they have are the LFR1100's in both omnidirectional and fully active which just came out. The LFR1100's are a slimmed down version of the Bryston Model T's and far less expensive (they sell direct to consumer vs. through the dealer network as Bryston does, but similar build quality). They will play much like the Model T's but just not as much horsepower if you don't need to fill a massive space like I am dealing with.