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I am satisfied with my 9 year old Sony TV. I have little interest in surround sound. Music is like a tonic.

How about an audiophile who can't afford to get into home theater—yet.

I like to watch movies and TV but it's not the hobby. Most money goes to music and 2 channel equipment.

Movies are okay, but music is my passion. For serious listening I generally spin vinyl rather than CDs, which keeps me at 2.0 rather than 5.1.

I have spent much more on my audio than I have on my home theater, and I still have an awesome HT. You don't need to go crazy to reproduce explosions. Sinatra, on the other hand, is a whole different story.

Guilty of the slow progression of audiophile to audiophile/videophile to videophile/audiophile and I hope it stops. Of course the fact that the music industry is following in the footsteps of Major League Baseball and forgetting who its customers are has fueled the transition!

We all know that so-called home theater has indeed taken over the consumer market. The new issue of Sound & Vision magazine points out that all the interest is in widescreen flat-panel TV's and an amazing amount of people are spending very little on the audio portion. It's all about the picture right now. Maybe it's the generation of people who grew up playing video games on TV and never paid any attention to the sound. Nobody is going to sit still and listen unless there is a movie on the screen with lots of car crashes and chase scenes. I think it has come to the point where people just have a very hard time sitting still unless there is some kind of full distraction.

The boob tube is still a boob tube when dressed up with a wide screen and a high powered multichannel sound system. Ugggh. Give me two speakers, two channels of tube SET amplification with Miles on vinyl and I am a happy man. Leave the idiot box for the kids.

Home theater has taken over my favorite hi-fi shop. They are so busy selling home theater they won't give me the time of day. I guess the loyalty I have shown all these years only goes one way.

I am over50, I think that's why I never got caught up in the whole video thing. People who grew up with MTV don't get it!

As my choice indicates, I enjoy both home theater and two channel systems. My preference at this point is two channel. I simply prefer the depth of involvement a stereo system provides. With the advent of Multi-Channel SACD's and DVD-Audio, I may be changing my preference sometime in not to distant future.

I have zero interest in what I term "loud TV". My interest is as an audiophile, period.

It's bad enough having the audio disease. I don't want to be a vidiot.

What's the conflict?

One trip to the Theater will never have me thinking about how great the audio in the theater is. But watching a movie on all but the best home theaters reminds me how cost ineffective it is to try to create the experience of a zillion ince screen and small gymnasium size room with 9+ large (very) loudspeakers in a media room the size of a large bedroom.

The movies I enjoy would not be enhanced with surround sound. I've maximized my electronics dollar by staying 2 channel. Can't wait to get a better phono pre and new cartridge!

I keep my systems separate. The HT system is a TV set, VCR, and DVD player. That's it. But my two-channel audio is where my hard-earned dollars go: Jeff Rowland electronics, Linn Sondek LP12, and Joseph speakers

After a number of years away from audio, I decided to invest in new gear. I purchased a decent HT system, thinking I would be happy with a dual-purpose rig. What happened however, is that it sparked a renewed interest in two-channel music, which is where I now spend most of my time and money. I still enjoy HT, but my interest in new gear is music-oriented.

I really enjoy my two channel, music only system. Occassionaly I also enjoy a film on dvd (an oxymoron, or not?), usually in someone else's home. Sometimes it's spectacular, but I don't really miss it when I go back to my two channel, music only system...

I mostly listen to music. I watch very few movies that were made after 1947. For me, home theater would consist of a single really good loudspeaker - but no one just buys a center channel loudspeaker, do they?

Music components are in one area of the house; video items in another (and no, it is not a large house—I just have my priorities).

I hate all those speakers and multichannel options and wires going everywhere. Give me two quality speakers any day, music or video.

One room for music, one room for video--just a teeny house, but I have my priorities!

I love film. I love music. I have discovered that a good two channel audio first system does a really fine job playing movies. So my stereo serves two purposes

More like an audiophile who watches TV from time to time.

I have been attempting to integrate home theater with my audio system since the late '70s when I used a Pioneer TV audio tuner (TVX95?) to pipe TV audio through my system. It always seemed like a logical thing to do.

nothing wrong with having a few systems in the house - each for a different purpose!

I have found that I do not really pay much attention to the audio of a movie and even find multi-channel destracting at times. My TV screen is very near the right channel speaker of my two channel system so I run it mono and turn off the left channel. There is a Velodyne HGS-18 behind the TV. This all makes for well-defined, powerful movie sound but in mono! In all fairness, I must admit that I am an audiophile first and watch few movies.

From what I see and read I am part of a shrinking minority, but quality sound is what turns me on not the latest, gratest and biggist HDTV screen. If I had $10,000 to $20,000 to spend on entertainment equipment it would all go for sound equipment. I was luckly enought 18 years ago to purchase a 27" Mitsubishi television. It put out a great picture than and still does. I have no desire to upgrade. When it finally breaks I will replace it with a $500 27". Anthing over that will go for a seperate sound system. Keep the reviews coming on sound equipment and be sure to include examples of affordable pieces. Reviews of $20,000 speakers may be of interest to the reviewers but not to me.

sacd can sound great with bi amped fronts and center channel and amps for the sides and rears with a very good pre amp.