2. amps-preamps
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Do NOT Blow Your Entire Budget on Two Channel Audio

Yes, two channel audio is here, and is not going away. However, object based audio is delightful, widely available on Tidal and Apple Music, and should be in the listening room of every music lover on the planet, not just "audiophiles. If you plan to be a music fan a year from now start building your object based audio system today. You will need:

1) A receiver/processor capable of Dolby Atmos.

2) A subscription to Tidal or Apple music.

3) A Firestick, ATV, or Nvidia Shield.

4) A minimum of 7 timber matched speakers and a subwoofer.

Once you experienced stereo would you ever go back to only mono? No, you would build a system capable of either mono or stereo. Now that object based audio has arrived do the same thing. Build a system capable of mono, stereo, AND object based audio. When Elton John heard Rocket Man in an object based format for the first time why did he demand to convert his entire catalog to Atmos? If you don’t know, then you need to go listen to Rocket Man in a good Atmos setup ASAP.

So, take your budget, DIVERSIFY, and get a good Atmos capable receiver or processor. Object based audio is NOT last decades surround sound or home theater. It is for MUSIC first, if you need a recommendation on how to allocate your budget feel free to post a question. Most importantly, you don’t NEED two systems, one for music and one for movies. A good object based audio system can play two channel music just fine. A two channel system on the other hand can’t play object based audio without a proper processor or receiver.

Greg Penny talks mixing Rocket Man in Atmos.

https://youtu.be/ggzfcUKDqdo?feature=shared

 

kota1
kota1 OP
2,706 posts
 

This thread isn’t about good, better, best, its about budgeting. I know you can build a great system for less than $1000, right @mahgister ? You can budget for a system that fits your lifestyle and decor right @bikeboy52?

​​@webking185 is 100% correct when he says don’t blow 100% of your budget on home theater. You shouldn’t blow 100% of it on stereo either.

What I am saying is there are companies that spent buku bucks on the blackberry infrastructure and all of their execs carried one in 2003. Why would you spend 100% of your budget on stereo when apple is doing to apple music and spatial audio what they did with the iphone when it crushed the blackberry, motorola, etc? Who is going to stop amazon and apple combined? Five years later those companies that invested heavily in blackberry, poof, they never recouped their investment and had to start over with apple or android. I LOVE two channel stereo BUT don’t own a TT or any records. It makes a difference in how I budget right? I do subscribe to Tidal, Amazon Music, Prime Video, Vudu and Netflix. I do own lossless bluerays of both music and movies with atmos soundtracks. It makes a big difference in how I budget. The only WRONG way to budget is the ostrich method, which is obviously prevalent when I see some of these posts.

 

kota1 OP
2,706 posts
 

Who is the atmos market? Young people (including males and females) with phones and earbuds listening with bluetooth and wireless. Gamers and VR enthusiasts. Owners of home theaters atmos comes in all budgets from soundbars to $1,000,000 custom built home theaters. Movie goers. Audiophiles who own multichannel preamps.

Who is the "audiophile" market? Baby boomers with disposable income that are predominantly male. Who else is buying stereos that cost over $20K? A very, very, small population.

Can you see why you should diversify your audio budget?

thecarpathian's avatar
thecarpathian
4,452 posts
 

And the broken record just keeps on playing...

bikeboy52
189 posts
 

Again,what? budget? What other people are doing? Who gives a rip? And btw Kota  . The in the know younguns and hipsters don’t use LOL anymore. Thats strictly for grandad nowadays, try to keep up.

kota1 OP
2,706 posts
 

So, you wanna have it ALL right? Start with a MCH preamp (must have XLR outputs and decode atmos) from Marantz, Mcintosh, Anthem, Arcam, Rotel, etc. (Keep the two channel preamp you likely already have, this isn’t an either or system).

Speakers, easy peasy. Start with two and then add on as you like.

BUT, what do you do about an amp? Keep it simple, able to expand with your system as you add channels, and able to do high quality music. I recommend going with monoblocks.

Check out monoblocks from Emotiva, Van Alstine, Nuprime, Parasound and Anthem. If you are a tube fan Carver, Black Ice Audio,and Allnic offer monoblocks.

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