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What's a home theater room? It sounds like a badly thought out oxymoron.
Sure we all have a great listening setup, or at least are working on it. But reader Charles Domingue wants to know if your main music listening room is also your home-theater room?
I had a listening room set up long before getting into (sorta) home theater. My tv set up serves mostly for movies and concert videos, but if I want to LISTEN, I head to the basement where my two-chanel system resides. That's where the real magic takes place.
I can't afford it any other way. I realize that the comprimise to the stereo system is far greater than to the HT system. But until I can afford a separate stereo system, this will do fine. I use a McIntosh MX135 that does a great job on both two- and multichannel.
I don’t have home theater. I haven’t turned a TV on in well over three years and I don’t miss it at all. I’m very busy and this leaves me much more of my precious spare time for serious listening, and (or) reading. If I want to see a film I’ll go to the movie theater, I like getting out of my crummy New York apartment. I watched Michael Fremer’s DVD on my computer.
99% of my listining happens on a two-channel system, mainly with vinyl. The HT room though saves my sanity when others want to play games in high-definition, highly deafening mode, or watch boom crash movies at silly volume. I can then retreat into my Luddite two-channel music only hideaway.
I have a dedicated hybrid room. B&W speakers, McIntosh electronics. In 2 channel, only the sources, a C2200 tube pre-amp and 2 monoblock MC501's are powered on. In surround, a MX134 surround processor and the amps for center and rear channels are also powered on. The left and right front channels from the MX134 'passthrough' the C2200, creating a perfect hybrid system. It works, looks, and sounds great and is extremely flexible and convenient.
Yes, mine is both. It certainly can be done if one picks the right components. In-wall speakers are popular with installers of home theater systems but they are poor on imaging and soundstage. Whereas tube amps and planar loudspeakers are the choice of many audiophiles, they are usually a poor choice for home theater. I have deployed Flying Mole’s latest amps, a pair of the DAD-M310s. They lose absolutely nothing to tube amps, even S.E.T.s, and have all the advantages of Class D with a switch-mode power supply: speed, dynamics, bass control. Truly the best of both technologies. Most subs work acceptably in shaking the room on explosions but fail miserably to reveal the instruments within their bandwidth. My boom-less TBI subs reveal the character of drums and upright acoustic bass, plus are very fast when playing movies – new experience for most.
The TBI Magellan subwoofer is a great choice for "musical" bass extension without boom. Have you noticed its uncanny ability to harmonize or voice with your main speakers or satellites? IMO theirs is the only sub that will do this.
Yes, the systems are completely separated out. The systems are situated perpendicular in a longish room living room. I have the high-end two channel setup for music and a pretty good home theater setup that's fun but by no means on par. Music always comes first in our house with hardly any TV watching and a moderate amount of DVD watching.
I don’t have home theater. In all honesty I haven’t watched a movie in a while. I spend my time at work writing about my life and making art. I haven’t turned on a TV in well over three years and I don’t miss it at all. I’m very busy and this leaves me a little more of my precious time for serious listening, and (or) reading the newspaper, and magazines. I have nothing against film; in the past I’ve loved watching movies. Occasionally I watch films on my computer. My preference is an urban movie theater. In a perfect world I would attend more concerts & live theater as well.
I am fortunate enough to have my basement divided into separate audio room and home theater. I do most of the music listening in the music room (Krell 650 monoblocks, Krell KPS 25 preamplifier/CD player and two Wilson Grand Slamm X-2 speakers with Transparent Audio cables). For multichannel music, I use my home theatre, with Meridian 861 processor and 9 Wilson WATT/Puppy speakers and 3 Velodyne subwoofers. Here, I would like turn off the video and concentrate on the beautiful surround sound music in the complete darkness of my home theatre. Meridian 861 processor can also convert stereo sources into Trifield or other multi-channel effects. Of course, to enjoy the music with video from DVDs, i would turn on my Ampro projector with 10 foot wide Stewart Screen. The final result is simply magic.