Rbach first we didn’t have your post removed.
Second we meant no disrespect to Millercarbon by shortening his handle to Miller.
Thirdly,we praised his dedication to two channel audio and commented that we also believe in tweeking up and using all the tools necessary to construct a great sounding music system.
However, we did take offense to his original post where he said that connecting any speakers to a multi channel receiver is a waste or that in general multi channel is a waste, if Dagastino built a $50k surround sound receiver do you think that piece might sound good?
We have personally experienced that you can have a great music and theater setup by using a high end intergrated amplifer combined with a surround sound receiver, the receiver powers the centers and backs and the high end integrated powers the mains, you have a CD player or streamer going into the integrated and boom, you have a dual purpose system that is excellent for both.
In this context the receiver is powering the centers and the backs so its lower level of quality compared to the main amplifier will be less noticable.
Again, there are indeed very high end receivers that are superb for both music and theater, the famous Arcam AVR 600 was praised through the rooof by J Peter Moncreif as offering fanatstic sound for both music and theater the newer Arcam and Audio Control models are actually quite good for both music and theater.
The difference of course is the quality and extent of the main loudspeakers for a pair of top of the line KEF and B&W of course you need even better electronics, but that still doens’t negate the fact that a high end $6,000.00 receiver isn’t going to sound quite good, would it sound as good for pure music as a $6,000.00 pure music rig the answer would be not as good, also today there are some really superb mutli channel amplfiers and surround sound processors.
For the true music and home theater person you can also purchase a surround sound processor and a multi channel amp and add a good tube preamplifier and still have a combined music and home theater setup that works wonderfully well for both so indeed there are many ways of constucting such a system.
The point made is that for many people like the OP they want a good system that can do both music and home theater to tell someone that you can’t do both when of course you can is wrong and may deprive that person of having a really immersive and totally engaging experience for watchimg TV and Movies which a Home Theater system can provide and of course you can still accheive great sounding music.
Rbach you need to lighten up, our advice is based on having experience, that is of course going to be completely different from Millercarbons.
There is a world of difference between a hobbist and someone who does this for a Living. We totally respect Millercarbon and for him his way is best, just please don’t tell people that want a system that can do both music and theater that you can’t accheive good results and that multi channel is a waste.
When we watch a movie in our theater it is a totally engrossing experience and unless you have a real Home Theater you have no idea on just how spectacular the experience can be.
Do we want this experience for others of course we do, we also want people to fall in love with the magic of a great two channel music system, the point we were making is that yes you can do both it just requires selecting and integrating the right equipment.
Just please don’’t tell someone that you don’t need a center channel or rears the fact is those two types of speakers create the magic of surround sound in the first place.
It seems that Millercarbon was saying some of the same things that we are saying he just said them incorrectly:
It is always better to invest in a high quality two channel rig than for the same budget a five or more channel rig as the two channel rig will sound far better for music.
What Millercarbon could have said was that you can start with this kind of setup a two channel rig and then transition to a rig that can do both by adding a surround sound receiver, a center channel and rears.
As for experience, wether you are talking to us or anyone else in the industry, do you honestly think that a person who is a hobbist is going to have as much experience as someone who does this for a livng 40-60 hours a week, 365 days a year? Most of our clients have built 4-5 systems in their lifetimes compare that to any store employee or owner, who has been in business, 10,20,30 years, and most of us have built hundres to thousands of systems, you learn a lot in doing this a business.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
