Home theatre and Musical Experience

Steve...Ditto on the same problem..I stumbled on a possible solution.....I've been a big fan of Mac/Jbl combo over the years, and have had various amps/preamps...Now I wanted all that "surround" stuff, so I went out and bought a Mac 7205 5 ch amp, c42 preamp, and msd4 processor...For sheer sonic fidelity, I was sadly disappointed....So I sold my 7205, and went back to a combination of higher power amps for the 5 channels.......An improvement, but still missing what I had been getting from my good old 2 channel stereo. For music listening, which is 95% of the time, the processor seemed to be the weak link in the system.

In the "pro-logic" mode, the msd4 threw far too much stuff into the center channel, and the front l and r became, well, "muddled".......I figured I was destined to go back to stereo for my music listening......I had an idea, a very simple one, and ran it by the guys down at the stereo store....They said I shouldn't do this, so naturally, I went home and tried it immediatly.

Here's what I did. You guys tell me if I'm going to wreck my equipment...Basicly, I wanted the best of both worlds. The full richness of my stereo, plus the ambiance of the surround......Soooooo, why not combine both signals.? For starters, I inserted a "monster " "Y" fitting into the L and R input of my main front amp. Now I have 2 female inputs for L and R. From my c42 preamp, I took my MAIN OUT and ran it to one of the 2 "Y" inputs to my main front amp that I described. Then, from my msd4 processor, I took the FRONT L & R and hooked it to the vacant input on my "Y" connector.......So what am I really doing here---I'm mixing 2 signals to my front L&R....The best stereo signal, un-muddled by the processor, and the processors signal....My other channels, sub, center, and surround l and r were left undisturbed. MAN, WHAT A DIFFERENCE...I didn't get off that couch till well after 2AM....AND....My equipment didn't blow up like my "knowledgeable professionals" down at the stereo store said.......I preserved 100% of the rich, beautiful Stereo signal, AND the full "ambiance" of my surround...WOW !! And I was ready to chuck the whole system and go back to Stereo...Any comments?? Anybody else tried this?? By the way, I am able to operate the volume control on BOTH the pre-amp AND processor from my only remote...The one that came with the C42...So once I get the volumes generally matched manually, I use the remote......I'm ecstatic!! Macfan Al...Beautiful Lake Tahoe, NV

Hi Steve,
I had the same situation 5 months ago when I had DENON AVR-1601 which was good in HT but very muddy in music. I tried to change speakers to NHT and B&W but no luck. I decided to go for separates starting from a new power-amp (EAD PowerMaster 500), a new pre/pro (Kinergetics Chiro C-802). The result was much more musical. Then , in search of musical sound, I a separate DACs and CD trasport into my system which is very satisfied. But, you know, before I got the right DAC for my system I bought 3 DACs (ADCOM GDA-600, Theta Pro BasicII, and EAD 700MKII) to test with my system. Furthermore that I bought a Camelot Dragon 5.1 Jitter reduction. Then finally, got a EAD TM Signature to replace my existing Pre/Proc, DACS, Transport, and Jitter Reducer.

I've been buying more than 20 equipments within 5 month period. I just want to tell you that I can't stop upgrading my system anymore. Everytime I upgrade and it sounds better, I never satisfied enough to stop upgrading. It seem to me that anything would be better if I keep upgrading. Just want to ask you if you sure to come this way?

In case you really want to upgrade you system. My suggestion: If your CD player is good enough ( I mean the internal DAC in your CD Player), buy a good integrated amp (Classe, Rotel, or NAD) for separate music listening. Doing this way will save you a lot of money from upgrading to separates. Or if you have money to spend and want real quality, go for separates. Good luck.

Supakit S.

This truly is a good thread. I posted something similar a while back with lesser results. It's good to see that the forum is both growing AND maintaining a high level of usable info. Kudos to all of you for helping out and sharing your experiences and knowledge.

Like many others here, i've tried to do a dual purpose system before and keep finding out just how poor most of the preamp / processors really sound on music. I REALLY found this out when i substituted one of my 2 channel preamps for the last HT processor that i had and was blown away. I would REALLY like to keep this preamp ( Marsh MSD P-2000) in the system and use an external processor, but the preamp has no processor loop and i can't find a simple way around this. As such, i keep coming back to checking into the Proceed pre / processor or the Adcom GFP-750 ( because it DOES have a processor loop ) but just haven't gotten around to it. I've got 7 channels of amplification just waiting to be kicked in the ass. Anybody have any suggestions ? Are you folks with the GFP-750 REALLY happy with them in terms of music performance ??? Anybody check into the Anthem pre / processor ??? Sean
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Steve, this can be done but as mentioned above it is expensive to do, this is what I have come to experience. First of all I run Martin aerius i's which the cost of a good amp has made my journey a pricey one. I'm using a bat vk200 amp to drive those little bastards, but it has brought me pleasure. I also have a dc-1 that I do my 2 ch and ht with. The dc-1 does great with ht and pretty good with 2 ch, but I have realized to get what I want I need a bat tube pre the vk30, which has a pass thru for when you listen to ht. I have listened to my current setup with a bat 3i pre and it gave me a big, big smile. So to get the best of both worlds I will eventually own a pre for 2 ch and processor for ht. Like I said it does get expensive, but its probably do to my speakers being so picky. One day my audio heaven will come, anyone looking to donate a Bat vk30. You may find better luck starting with 2 ch and a pre that has the pass thru feature. I think its very hard to have both with just one pre. Good luck with your adventure. pete