Home theatre and Musical Experience

Good bang for the buck to drive the mains for music is a Bryston 3BST. Lots in great shape available used.

The advice here is incredible. Have a lot to think about now but will be back with more questions I'm sure.
Thanks
Steve

As Panzercat mentioned, one of the big drawbacks with combining audio and HT systems (which I was forced to due when I moved to a smaller house in the UK) is having a TV sitting between your speakers (unless you fork out the long green for front projection, which I hope to do soon!). I recommend trying to keep the L/R speakers at least somewhat forward of the screen, and using tube traps either in front of the screen (during music listening only, obviously), or just inboard of the L/R speakers, to reduce reflections off the TV that will muddy the soundstage or create a hard center image with no depth. Take the time to really experiment with room treatment...even simple things like bookshelves, furniture, wall hangings, etc. It makes for a much more invloving experience, for both music and HT.

Steve,

I saw in some of your other threads that you are now considering McCormack as your amplification. I think this is good move. Good deals on used DNA 0.5s and DNA 1s are easy to be had. And if you so incline in the future, you can have Steve McCormack upgrade the amp driving your mains to one of his mods to enhance you music listening sessions.

Your journey will be fun and expensive. Ever since I got bit by the audio/music bug I'm finding that out everyday. My HT setup has remained the same for the last 2 years, but my music system is always in metamorphosis.

Doing the research is sometimes as fun as actually finally getting the stuff. There's no harm in taking your time.

Enjoy!

Steve, I recently took my first plunge into HT. I've been a audiophile for 20 years but was always nervous about making the move to HT, because music still remains 75-80% of my listening. I bought a Proceed PAV with Classe CA-200 and Classe CAV-75 amps used for less than $3k. I'm not wealthy but I like good sound. The Proceed PAV doesn't have DD or DTS, but I couldn't find a <$1500 pre/pro that did such a good job on music. The Dolby Pro Logic does a good enough job for my limited HT watching. I also went with a seperate stereo amp for music. The Classe CA-200 drives my mains and sounds better to me than any multi-channel amp I've heard on 2 channel music. When I play HT, I turn on the CAV-75 to drive the surrounds. To me I have the best of both worlds, I know the pre/pro could have better HT setup but with my budget limitations and my listening habits I chose a used pre/pro that's strength is music over HT. How much you value or listen to music and your budget will determine where you go, there are many different directions to go in. I hope this helps.