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2 Ch/HT integration-need help from experts

Hello,

I am planning to build 5.1 Home theater on top of existing 2 ch stereo.

My problem is that I don't have a preamp, so HT bypass (in a preamp) is currently not my option.

My 2 channel system consists of music server equipped with lynx aes16 audio card (as a transport), DCS Scarlatti stack (upsampler, DAC and clock) which feeds Krell Evo 400's. Most downstream is Wilson Sasha. Oppo bdp-93 is hooked up to the upsampler for movie.

I really prefer i) not to have a preamp (I like the dynamics of Scalartti without it) and ii) to keep high resolution audio (True HD and DTS Master) from the blu-ray player. Of course, I don't really want to rewire whenever watching movie:)

I can live with two volume controls (from Scarlatti DAC and from any processor I am going to buy).

Would you have any recommendations? It doesn't need to be fancy, simple solutions such as HDMI/Toslink splitter (so that it can feed 2 channel to Scalatti DAC and others to the processor) would be greatly appreciated as long as it does not hurt 2 channel performance. I doubt about high resolution audio which passes toslink even 2 channel though.

It will also be appreciated if you could point out something I am missing such as OPPO/DCS-software setup to solve my problem.

Thank you!

*English is not my first language; so please understand if my description above has errors or is inefficient.
wkkim
5 responses Add your response
edorr
714 posts
 
There is a thread on the digital forum (little dated). Search for:

Who makes switch-box for balance inputs?

If that does not point you in the right direction I'm sure you can Google yourself a solution.
wkkim OP
5 posts
 
Thank you for all the comments! I should think about all three ways you have recommended and will start to budget.

Edorr: do you have any balanced AB switch you can recall?
shiva
181 posts
 
I used to have a tube integrated amp as well as a Pioneer Elite surround receiver in my system. For a simple solution so that both amps can share the main speakers, I simply had a set of speaker wires running from each amp with banana plugs. The unused set remaining coiled behind each main. When I wanted to listen to the tube amp, I just swapped out the speaker wire at the speaker taps. Only took a minute and was good to go.
edorr
714 posts
 
I have an integrated 2 channel and 5.2 system and it works beautifully. I use a preamp with bypass but if you do not want to go down that path you should simply get yourself a high grade (balanced) input switchbox. There are some threads discussing these devices on audiogon.

Your inputs would be the scarlatti and the FL/FR channel on your surround processor, and outputs will go to your preamp.

Not sure what you are getting at with HDMI / Toslink splitter, but you absolutely won't need this. If you want one input from your source (presumably a universal player) into the Scarlatti and another one into your processor, you simply run the coax (or AES/EBU) digital input into the Scarlatti and HDMI into the processor.
stanwal's avatar
stanwal
3,147 posts
 
I am familiar with the sound of the Sasha as my friend has a pair; they are very revealing speakers. My advice on the whole thing would be, don't do it. I have a separate system for HT but it is also 2 channel and I find it works just fine. A 5.1 will give sound effects you won't get with 2 channel but the quality of the sound itself is very seldom as good. The more complications you put into a system the harder it is to maintain the same level of performance. HT is just a different animal than music listening and you have to give one priority over the other. I would chose to do it by running 2 channel and giving up the surround sound aspects of 5.1. I find most theaters have bad sound and actually miss the old Altecs of my young days. Obviously I am an old fogey so feel free to disregard this.
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