Denon 6500 - Am I crazy?

Hello,
You have to decide what is more important to you. I went through this same thing In the end I ended up with a Denon 4806 7.1 for theater and a emotiva preamp and Marsh sound Design ht500 amp 2 channel system with an imput pass through for home theater. I get my 2 channel system but I can use the two channel system to power the front. The amp I use has three channels with three separate transformers for powering the front three speakers. Everyone here is correct you only need a 5.1 system as long as you only have 1 row of seats. Because I have stadium seating I opted for the 7.1 to better cover the room. Subwoofers are very important for movies but do 1 ported connected only to your surround receiver . For music side do two sealed subs. You should get the matching center channel for your speakers. That being said you would be amazed how good tv and movies are in two channel. Later you can go nuts with adding more speakers. I believe only the front three need to match since AVPs have so much room correction now. 

re: Center Channel

Not trying to be ’right’, just to explain and pass on my experiences.

I have found, most of the center ’sound’ is still the phantom center created by equal sound from front l and front r mains. Another reason to get full range mains.

Center wants to be best at dialog, and capable of an output level to match the db level of the front mains. And easily and inconspicuously located.

Center’s location is critical to cement the bulk of the dialog on the screen, the engineers using front mains for off center front dialog. Timbre matching is now important.

Sooo, while it may seem, and is generally proposed to match the center OEM, often they are too big to be easily and inconspicuously located.

I’m no fan of Bose’s ’Stereo Everywhere’ i.e. their 901’s, and no fan of their ’full sound’ from small sources, clever for a kitchen radio, but ...

However, I was and am still happily surprised by the little Bose Center I recommended, I have been over many years, re-configuring my equipment and furniture arrangements, never tempted to replace it, THUS, I could not tell you a thing about any other center speaker.

I guess I am lucky it’s timbre is compatible with my mains.

It's real easy to try and be surprised by it, or return it.

When you think of this receiver this way, it makes sense.

Tuner
preamp
amplifier (times X 11 channels)
processor

All this is crammed into a box that weighs 30 lbs. So think about that for a minute. In our world where preamps alone can weigh that, how does the physics even make sense?

I am in the camp that says no receiver can ever match the audio quality of a good two channel amp and preamp, or a good quality integrated amp.

Oz

Hello, 
One more thing tubes wear out over time and can get expensive. If you buy an amp for home theater do not use tubes unless you have the money to upkeep them. Also I love Emotiva products except for the amps unless you are using them for HT only. Otherwise pick another brand of amp. They are too sterile for music even there best versions. A lot of people do not realize that the better your HT setup sounds playing music the better it does playing music due to a lot of talking and music in movies which makes the movie more engaging and real. Also a movie is over two hours and you do not want to get listening fatigue watching a movie. 

ozzy62

good points, if trying to use the AVR for serious 2 channel music it will be adequate power for efficient speakers, but nothing special for sound quality.

for video, these ’kind of lightweight’ multi-channel amps can do a decent job for 5,7,9,11 channels, by their ability to send power only instantaneously here, there, not needing to send power everywhere simultaneously, so this 11.1 AVR may be good at that.

I want to add, look at the speakers first, i.e. speakers that are good for video, i.e. my DBX, successfully creating a wide center image, are not the best choice for 2 channel music. I toe my music mains in for ’just wide enough’ for 2 people, not wider than that, and dead center is still best.

sooo, pick your video main speakers based on wide enough center, high enough efficiency and lack of bass distortion because they are often too close to rear wall and also often too close to a corner. If 1 is close to a corner, another not, it is again the bass that will be the ’problem’.

Avoiding too much bass in corners is why I don’t like ports, and why so many video systems rely on subs, to get the low bass that has been avoided up front. Just not too much from the sub, and for 2 channel with video, not too little from the front, a tango.