Satisfying Home Cinema and Hi-Fi in the same room

[admin_exported]

Hi,

I currently have a home theatre setup that lends itself to my hi-fi listening system as well. Although the dvd and receiver are by far the most musical I tested, I am sure that I could get more from a dedicated CD player and Amplifier.

The question is not so much what CD and amp to plump for, but how would it fit together with my current setup.

I do not want to have two sets of floorstanders in the room, so would like to utilise my existing B&W XT4's for hi-fi as well. The speakers do not support bi-wiring and I do not want to start introducing signal degrading additions such as input selector switches.

Any advice as to the best way to use the same speakers with two different outputs?

Current setup:

DVD: Arcam DV79

HT Receiver: Arcam AVR300

Front L/R Speakers: B&W XT4

Centre Speaker: B&W XTC

Rear L/R: B&W FPM4

Sub: Velodyne SPL-1200

I was looking spend up to £1500 each on amp and CD. Is this overkill for the XT4's?

Many thanks.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

I had a similar problem and although I have had to go down a different route, the official way of doing this is as follows. You need to connect your front two speakers to your stereo amp and the remaining speakers to your receiver as normal. You will then need an interconnect from an input on your stereo amp (CD, Tuner, Aux etc,) to your receiver's pre out front left and right. Once you are all linked up set your stereo amp to the input you have used and turn it to a reasonable volume, say easy listening volume. You then use the auto calibration on your receiver to pick up the speakers and set them at the appropriate levels. Now you connect your dvd to your receiver, CD to your stereo amp etc and when you want to play a CD, you do as usual, stereo amp and cd player and when you want to watch a film or tv, you need both amp and receiver switched on. If I could afford them, I would go Primare for looks and obviously sound.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Gerrardasnails.

Makes perfect sense now you have explained it

I presume that the volume used to calibrate the speaker levels through the amp will need to be noted and then the amp set to that every time I want to play DVDs etc.

I agree that Primare would be a stonking addition to the setup, will just have to see what I can get past the missus ...

 

[Gerrardasnails]

You are right about the volume - I forgot to mention that bit. Have fun looking!