Stereo or Home Theater?

For me, my system has to sound good with music first and foremost. With that said, I have been disappointed with pretty much every piece of home theater gear I've owned. I have owned pieces from the likes of Lexicon, Citation, Bryston, Marantz, EAD, and Proceed. I found myself rotating processors and amps about every 3 months because I grew tired of the sound. Just on a side note...the best "compromise" that I found was with a 5.1 upgraded Madrigal/Citation 7.0 THX processor and 7.1 THX amps. They were the most musical of any home-theater gear I tried, but still a fair disappointment in the end.

I agree with most people that have responded- they are two seperate beasts. I ended up going back to nice tube gear, although I do have a nice 32" TV and DVD/DVD-Audio player. My DVD player has an unusually good virtual surround processor. No, it's not as good as a full set-up but I'm more than satisfied since my main interest is music.

I have never cared for multi-channel music. If recorded well, i.e. the surround channels reproducing ambient sound and not distinct kick drums, guitars, and the like coming from behind you, it can sound good. Unfortunately, 90% of the multi channel discs ( both DVD-Audio and SACD) are poorly mixed. Most multi-channel discs drive me crazy with so much information in the rear channels. Call me a purist but this is NOT natural.

So there you have it...my 2 cents worth. Enjoy the music!!

HT is the bastard sibling of stereo music. Personally, I don't find the DVD + rear projector to make for pleasant viewing, I am not in to film like I am in to music, and i just get bored watching movies at home. So I frequent the three great(one sports a bar:) theaters in the city that show independent films. -I usually have a few unused Blockbuster GCs running around from Xmas, etc. I send them to my Dad, the man loves movies.-

an emphatic Stereo

I have an extensive 2 channel setup that includes a proton 36" tv and dvd player. In the room I am using it in 14' by 27' it is more than adequate and the stereo sound is earth moving, friends who have been over have been quite impressed, and never missed the other 3 speakers

how many movies are truly recorded in 5 channel? a few action pictures. The only music DVD that took advantage of the 5 channel output is an eagles acapella on the Hell Freezes Over Disc. Many music dvd's throw the lead instrument in the back channels, it's very distracting.

the lovely thing is after a movie, I can disappear in great two channel musical reproduction

HT appeals to the masses not the music

Well, check out the latest U2 and Nine Inch Nails concert DVDs if you want to see current SOTA surround-sound music/video. Both are positively awesome. I saw U2 in Chicago and there were 25,000 people four nights running, all on their feet going nuts. It occurred to me that this was perhaps the masses getting into music. And I was loving every bit of the high-end investment I have put into my system to reproduce it - the better equipment made it a much more compelling experience. -Kirk

Unsound nailed it. If I ever do integrate multichannel with my stereo system, it will strictly be supplemental. My Line 1 has throughputs that should make it easy. I do wish a company would produce a high end multichannel processor and 3 channel amp in one box. It would work for most of us.