jonathanRD said:
RobinKidderminster said:
Interesting thoughts thanks. I also wonder if the same rules (or lack of) apply when used for 2ch although I mainly use HT I guess my choice of 5.1 was based on the front speaker specs. Cheers.
Back in 2011 when I moved my 2ch setup with standmount speakers into a new room in my extension, I realised that the speakers were a little 'lost' and I decided I needed the scale from floorstanders to fill the room. At the same time I stumbled into buying a tv and wall mounted it, and then thought about home cinema. But I could not reconcile my requirements for 2 ch with hc - well not with the budget I had available. So I decided to keep them seperate - this is not possible for many but as this is an extra room I have been able to accommodate both systems next to each other.
Life is full of compromises.
After a few different system combos over recent years, I'm beginning to reach similar conclusions to this. The major downside is the potential of your living room looking more like Richer Sounds than Richer Sounds.
It's not always possible but a nice combo would be to wallmount the satellites in a sub/sat system (like Apex A10's for example) and have your stereo speakers on the floor (standmount or floorstanders, whatever's your preference). This would look reasonably discreet put retain a decent performance for both uses. Active speakers for the 2-channel would help keep the box-count from getting too silly (a couple of Devialet Phantoms would do the trick I'm sure!!!!!! Sorry just dreaming there for a moment).
Although I think many people who choose wallmounting put the TV too high (they choose the location when they're stood up) and place the main L&R satellites too close to one another really reducing the soundstage.
The other facet of keeping things totally separate is cost: and that's quite counter-intuitive. My AVR is absolutely brilliant in multi-channel use but only cost me £500 (albeit reduced from an originally £800 machine). Most AVR's considered decent at music too are in the £1k to £2k range and still may not really hit the spot. (My own system's still a work in progress). So aiming at a midrange AVR and separate 2-channel integrated may not be more costly. Also AVR's get superceded spec-wise pretty quickly compared to an integrated. This can be eye-watering if you spent £1k to £2k on one only to see it become redundant (HDMI, DTS Master Audio, etc). I'm not gullible enough to buy into every new industry standard, but some (like HDMI) do get universally adopted. A certain amount of common sense can help prevent you buying into stuff that won't last, but keeping the bill down when it does become necessary does help.
Having bought a few Bluray Audios / SACD's, it is nice having the facility to enjoy multi-channel audio. I've been tempted at times to abandon surround altogether and go back to a conventional 2.0 system, but I convince myself not to everytime I watch a movie or listen to multi-channel music, even if that's comparatively a small percentage of the time. And I'd miss the all-engulfing sound of multi-channel stereo too, which really floats my boat for jazz.
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