Crossroads of 2ch and HT

[ironchef]

I'm calling upon the immense amount of wisdom here at Club Rotel to help answer whether I can do this potentially strange thing. Sorry if this is covered in a previous post, search reveals nothing useful.

I have an RA-1062, straight 2ch integrated, and I want to know if I can add an additional amp (like an RB-1070), as well as a surround processor of some sort, for surround (I guess this would be 4ch?). This would allow me to add new equipment without replacing any, and allow me to keep my high quality 2ch sound.

I've heard that the surround receivers from Rotel and others come at the price of the 2ch music experience. If this is not true, then I will simply upgrade to one of the 7.1 receivers.

Make sense?

[Azeke]

Ironchief,

I would say if you are a 2 channel advocate, stick with an initial 2 channel setup, (2 channel amp, separate amp for the front channels). You would then just need to add a processor for HT, a receiver would eliminate the need for additional separate amps.

I'm sure others will chime in here.

Just my quick thoughts,

Azeke

[tboooe]

i believe the rotel receiver and prepro comes with a bypass option which supposedly will send the 2 channel directly to the amp without going through the dsp. I am not sure if this is as good as having a dedicated 2 channel receiver though. Does anyone know from a circuitry point of view if this bypass path is as I described and how does it sound vs a 2 channel only receiver?

I have the same problem. I am mostly a 2 channel person but am seriously thinking about adding ht but i dont want to lose audio quality. Hopefully the bypass option is good.

[DrJRapp]

I am both a 2 channel and a HT person. I have an independent 2 channel system in my study/library and a 7.1 system in my family room. Recently I have been doing a lot of 2 channel listening in my FR with a very high quality CD player (Shanling CDT100) running thru bypass mode on my 1098 to my 1080 to my tower speakers. I am thoroughly pleased with the quality of sound that I achieve.

I think that the success of an integrated 2 channel and HT setup depends heavily on your speakers. There are speakers that were designed for HT only, then there are speakers that are designed originally for 2 channel music then later adapted to HT. I would go with the latter. If a pair of speakers doesn't sound right in stereo when driven on only 2 channels from a multi-channel rig, then it isn't going to sound right with a 2 channel amp either. Therefore, if you keep your current 2 channel speaker an just add a corresponding center and surrounds, (along with the corresponding electronics) the sound you will achieve in any 2 channel mode on any high quality multi-channel pre pro such as the 1098/1068 with a high qulaity amp ( or a high end multi-channel receiver) should be nearly indistinguishable from your 2 channel amp.

[booktrunk]

To be honest i'd try a RSP-1068 with a stereo power amp 1070 or 1080 and think you will be might impressed with it.

I think you would be hard pressed to say the 1062 is "better" different maybe but better. Is a different question.

If you try that and like the stereo from it then sell the 1062 and get a 1075 to go with it for 7.1

I've had a RSP 1066, 1060 stereo amp and now have a 1068 had 1070s bi-amped with it for stereo as well at one point. So all in all I have experimented with these sorts of setups.

I've not got a Musical Fidelity A308 stereo amp attached to the pre-outs for L & R on the 1068. This is because I don't think the 1060range of stereo amps are really different to the 1068

[rnoble]

I would also keep the 2ch setup separate, there are too many comprimises when people combine. That way you can upgrade to a nice tube pre or DAC or whatever down the track and not comprimise the HT setup either.

[NewBuyer]

Question please: Is it true that the 1098 produces better two-channel mode performance than the 1068?