I just sold my Outlaw to go back to an AV Receiver. The receiver I have now is a Underwood Modified Denon 3806 (around $2,000 new). The Denon is driving my rears and my center channels. My center is a Dynaudio Contour T2.1 (not very efficient) with the Denon handling it easily. The center is crossed over at 100HZ so the amp doesn't have to work very hard. The rears are small Cambridge surrounds and again, no problem for the Denon. I also drive two outdoor speakers off the extra amps on the receiver (7 total channels) and control them separately in zone two. The front two speakers are driven by a Macintosh amp. I am currently shopping for a 2 channel pre so for now the Denon is handling my 2 channel also. To really notice a significant increase in audio/feature performance I think you need to at least get to the Anthem 20 or Meredian 561 level ($1,500 used). THEN add the cost of 5 interconnects, 3 power chords, extra power conditioner capacity, dedicated power lines, amplifiers and, well, you see where I'm going... it just stopped making sense to me. All this extra "stuff" also had it's adverse effects on the sonics of both 2 channel and surround sound.
Any Home Theater Experts here?
My home theater setup right now is a Sony DA777ES 5 channel receiver that I'm using as a processor; and it is also driving my two rear speakers. The center speaker is being driven by a Bryston monoblock and the fronts by a Gamut D200 amp. The front speakers and center are Verity Parsifals. The surrounds are Mirage Omnis. My home theater is also connected to my Sonic Frontiers Line 3 preamplifier which I can switch to bypass mode whenever I want to listen to two channel.
My question is: I can understand that for 2 channel listening with a seperate good preamp, I could hear soundstaging, detail, musicality etc, but what should I expect the improvement be if I replaced my Sony receiver with a dedicated home theater processor like the Outlaw model 990?
I would be using it mainly for watching movies since I only listen to 2 channel when listening to music. I'm using my Sonic Frontiers preamp for 2 channel, which I assume is better than the Outlaw in this application.
Experts, pls. advise on if it's worth replacing my Sony receiver/processor for a dedicated home theater processor like the Outlaw model 990. Will I enjoy movies more, or not really?
My question is: I can understand that for 2 channel listening with a seperate good preamp, I could hear soundstaging, detail, musicality etc, but what should I expect the improvement be if I replaced my Sony receiver with a dedicated home theater processor like the Outlaw model 990?
I would be using it mainly for watching movies since I only listen to 2 channel when listening to music. I'm using my Sonic Frontiers preamp for 2 channel, which I assume is better than the Outlaw in this application.
Experts, pls. advise on if it's worth replacing my Sony receiver/processor for a dedicated home theater processor like the Outlaw model 990. Will I enjoy movies more, or not really?