Hi Brad:
It seems like we may have a similar size room and speaker set up. And with my recent acquisition of the Manis the same front speakers assuming youre using your Manis in this room. I also watch/listen to a lot of music videos and as much as Ive tried listening to them in surround, particularly if its a DTS recording, I find myself always coming back to 2 channel for any type of music CD or DVD. It just sounds better that way. Movies are another story. I still like to hear the helicopters behind me. So I think your speaker placement should be driven by 2 channel only. I also think that trying to optimize a surround system for primarily music listening would be counterproductive, and that you would end up loosing more than you could ever hope to gain. I also have found that the placement of the rear speakers is far less critical for a decent movie experience, another reason to concentrate on the placement of your front speakers. Your comment that you are considering a new pre with HT pass through seems to imply that you may be listening to music through a pre/pro. If that is the case the best improvement you could make would be the addition of a good 2 ch. preamp. I have yet to listen to a pre/pro that comes close to a good 2 ch. preamp for music. You could then run your DVD player directly to your pre via a separate set of rca cables when you listen to music videos, assuming there is a PCM option on the disc. Movies (or for that matter music DVDs) would still go through you digital out into your pre/pro. This would also give you an easy way to A/B music videos through your pre vs. surround through your pre/pro and probably come to the same conclusion as I did that music always sounds better in stereo. Hope this helps.
Regards, Mark
It seems like we may have a similar size room and speaker set up. And with my recent acquisition of the Manis the same front speakers assuming youre using your Manis in this room. I also watch/listen to a lot of music videos and as much as Ive tried listening to them in surround, particularly if its a DTS recording, I find myself always coming back to 2 channel for any type of music CD or DVD. It just sounds better that way. Movies are another story. I still like to hear the helicopters behind me. So I think your speaker placement should be driven by 2 channel only. I also think that trying to optimize a surround system for primarily music listening would be counterproductive, and that you would end up loosing more than you could ever hope to gain. I also have found that the placement of the rear speakers is far less critical for a decent movie experience, another reason to concentrate on the placement of your front speakers. Your comment that you are considering a new pre with HT pass through seems to imply that you may be listening to music through a pre/pro. If that is the case the best improvement you could make would be the addition of a good 2 ch. preamp. I have yet to listen to a pre/pro that comes close to a good 2 ch. preamp for music. You could then run your DVD player directly to your pre via a separate set of rca cables when you listen to music videos, assuming there is a PCM option on the disc. Movies (or for that matter music DVDs) would still go through you digital out into your pre/pro. This would also give you an easy way to A/B music videos through your pre vs. surround through your pre/pro and probably come to the same conclusion as I did that music always sounds better in stereo. Hope this helps.
Regards, Mark