Home Theater Forum - View Single Post - two Channel Music and Home theater Integrated or seperated?

Alon Goldberg · 04-26-2008, 05:20 PM

My personal opinion is that there is almost always a compromise to be made between a home theater system and a 2-channel stereo system (unless you have serious money to spend). In my own circumstances, I decided not to compromise on music, so I built a dedicated 2-channel system as my only system.

The system consists of a Naim pre-amp and poweramp, Naim phono stage, Naim cd player and power supply, plus a Rega Planar 3 turntable. The pre-amp has a unity-gain AV input, which would allow me to integrate with a home theater if I wished to, but to be quite honest the sound stage on this system is fantastic so I have no plans to build a surround system.

I would say I use the system for 80% music, and only 20% TV. It sounds absolutely astounding for music, but can be weak for movies and live sports (this is mostly because my system is 100% analogue, and my PVR has a poor DAC and cheap power supply - I could resolve this by purchasing a outboard DAC in the future).

On a separate topic, I've found the phono stage on most AVR's to be quite lacking - in almost any but the best integrated amp's I would still lean towards a dedicated phono stage if budget permits. It's unfortunate that made manufacturers will only spend a few dollars on the phono stage, if they do choose to provide one at all

04-26-2008, 05:20 PM	#2 of 8
Alon Goldberg *Alon Goldberg* Member Location: Vancouver, BC Join Date: Jul 2006 Local Time: 01:43 PM Local Date: 08-29-2008 Posts: 1,043	Re: two Channel Music and Home theater Integrated or seperated? My personal opinion is that there is almost always a compromise to be made between a home theater system and a 2-channel stereo system (unless you have serious money to spend). In my own circumstances, I decided not to compromise on music, so I built a dedicated 2-channel system as my only system. The system consists of a Naim pre-amp and poweramp, Naim phono stage, Naim cd player and power supply, plus a Rega Planar 3 turntable. The pre-amp has a unity-gain AV input, which would allow me to integrate with a home theater if I wished to, but to be quite honest the sound stage on this system is fantastic so I have no plans to build a surround system. I would say I use the system for 80% music, and only 20% TV. It sounds absolutely astounding for music, but can be weak for movies and live sports (this is mostly because my system is 100% analogue, and my PVR has a poor DAC and cheap power supply - I could resolve this by purchasing a outboard DAC in the future). On a separate topic, I've found the phono stage on most AVR's to be quite lacking - in almost any but the best integrated amp's I would still lean towards a dedicated phono stage if budget permits. It's unfortunate that made manufacturers will only spend a few dollars on the phono stage, if they do choose to provide one at all