Home Theater Config without Compromise in 2-channel Audio?

[austriacus]

Colleagues:

I am looking for a balanced solution between audio and video. My disappointment is that surround-receivers (like the Denon 3805 I tested) are "big engines" with a lot of buttons and plugs but really do not fulfill my requirements for listening to stereo. So I am thinking to invest in a Rotel Stereo-Solution (I am owning TRIANGLE speakers) and importing the audio-source digitally.

My profile:

# Typical living room, investment 10-15k€

# 40% Audio (CD's, Stereo), Jazz + "natural" sound from reeds, piano, voices...; I do not believe in a great future of SACD and DVD Audio

# 30% Stereo-Video (own Material; I want to escape the need to burn everything on DVD but to play it directly from the Computer as MPEG2 or MPEG4)

# 30% DVD and in future HDTV (big surround "noise" has not priority)

Solution Discussed:

# Rotel Amp as Stereo-"Back-bone" with (existing) Triangle speakers

# A DLP video-projector for 2-4k€ with a utilisation for the next 2-3 years (then I expect 1080p to be the right joice)

# Pinnacle Show-Center or MS X-Box as Central Duke-Box both for AUDIO and VIDEO

# An audiophile DVD-player without an expensive D/A-converter for AUDIO feeding the Amp digitally, codefree of course (tests on Denon's 3910: the only week point is stereo-play!?)

# A separate Amp (may be a cheaper one) + small speakers (even Bose?) for surround sound

#Optional a Plasma-Screen for "looking TV": Panasonic 435 or comparable.

My questions to you:

1) What do you think about the configuaration for my profile? Improvements? Suggested changes?

2) Do you think that Rotel Amps are "half way" between DENON 3805 and a THETHYS Casablanca?

3) What do you think about solutions like Pinnacle Show-Center: What would be the difference in picture-quality between an MPEG2-File through such a Show-Center and a DVD-Signal say from a DENON 3910?

Thank you for your well-appreciated help in advance. Best wishes for 2005!

[big G]

Nad

I notice there are tons of Rotel fans out there (me included). But for mostly 2 channel music appreciation and a bonus of decent HT, are you considering NAD? My bro replaced his NAD 762 with a Rotel 100 x 5 reciever (forget the number) and could notice the loss in his music listening experience. This is of course subjective but we both agreed that there was a trade off.
I assume Rotel seperates are a different story though???

[austriacus]

Greg,

thanks for your impressions. NAD definitely has a very good image. I also liked the Danish Copeland stereo-amp very much for stereo.

Also seeing the efforts from Sony to produce surround-sound in amateur camcorders is more a FASHION than has anything to do with quality or real need. This is really to grandstand.

Even more interesting is that the CD-Sales still slighty increase while the SACD und AUDIO-DVD have DECREASING sales!!!

This underlines that obviously some groups go for "noise and effects" in Films, others go for Music...

Is there a difference in feeding a projector through a computer-source with MPEG2 and using an expensive DVD-player?

Any more suggestions colleagues?

Austriacus

[Bob]

The best improvement you can make if 2 channel music is more important to you than HT is to get a preamp with a bypass mode and only use your AV receveiver for movies. It took me a long time to come to this realization. I had a top of the line Theta system with a CBII with extreme DACS and didn't want to beleive that a preamp could better it. Then I started doing comparisons and found that every preamp I tried easily made better music. At first I bought a used 10 year old Audio Research pre amp for a few hundred dollars but, it didn't have a bypass and I would have to switch the interconnects back and forth. Even that was worth the trouble.

[austriacus]

I agree, also in my current equipment (YAMAHA) the by-pass mode easily outperforms the DENON 3805.

What about the D/A-conversion: would you prefer the conversion to be done in the DVD-player or by the Pre-Amp / Receiver?