Home cinema newbie questions...preamp advice

Richard,

I agree with Bdgregory - forget the 3-channel idea and just go with 2. IMO, get a 2-channel pre-amp to connect to both the audio OUTs of your sat/cable receiver and DVD player. Connect the video OUTs of the sat/cable receiver and DVD player directly to the TV video inputs 1 and 2 (no audio connected to the TV and no video connected to the pre-amp). Be sure to set the sat/cable and DVD players' internal menus to default to "stereo". To answer the question "can i link my TV/LCD directly into a normal preamp?" The answer is don’t - just connect the TV directly to the video sources and use the pre-amp for audio only. Later on you can go one step further and add a powered subwoofer. In that case you could connect the pre-amp to the subwoofer (via RCA), then connect the subwoofer output to the Belles amp (also via RCA). This works great because both the main speakers and Belles are low frequency filtered – just the sub produces the bass. That is what I do for my AV system and it works wonderfully.

John

Bob Wood,

Yes, the subwoofer is powered using a 350W digital amp and the main amp for the satellites is 120W solid state.

Elevick,

Good point that, "the center channel on most 5.1 tracks is by far the most used". That is certainly true when playing the 5.1 part of the disc. However, a properly set up 2 channel system, in stereo, will reproduce the "center" information with no problem, but proper sitting position becomes more important since one must be seated more in the middle of the speakers to locate the dialog in the center of the screen.

John