2. home-theater
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Using a HT system with a tube preamp

Seriously thinking about adding a stereo tube amp to my HT system to improve stereo sound.

curious if anyone else is doing this? Seems turning on system is a pain due to time needed to warm up tube preamp (minute or longer). And if family doesn’t use the stereo that much still need to keep stereo preamp/tubes on while watching tv or movie due to mains operating under bypass mode.

curious how it’s working out for others.

maybe I should just buy two addl main speakers for separate connect to a preamp, etc.
Thanks


emergingsoul
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Will make a difference but not much. Problem is the vast majority of improvement is from getting out of multi-channel into stereo. Especially if its an AVR. You'd be surprised how much better movies are with really good stereo. https://systems.audiogon.com/systems/8367 Multi-channel can't touch this.
emergingsoul OP
1,202 posts
 
I hear ya. When I switch to eliminate the center spkr, it is hardly missed.

so using a stereo preamp vs a multichannel avr may be better.
but what about using an analogue preamp ?
Maybe a digital stereo preamp using hdmi connects may provide SQ that is very comparable to an analogue preamp which I guess can’t be used for HT use.  
The world needs to deal with this very harsh conflict between stereo and HT.  It is a real pain in the ass to piece together all the equip.  
soix
9,695 posts
 
There are plenty of excellent solid state stereo preamps that would be a huge upgrade over an AVR or prepro.  Also, there are a few tube pres that don’t have tubes on when using bypass — Rogue I think is one and maybe Backert or VAC?  Either way a good stereo pre will improve your 2-channel performance significantly. 
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