I think that everyone has covered the solution pretty well. I just wanted to say that I feel the perfect system for music is also the perfect system for home theater. I like the natural charcteristics of my stereo in the home theater. Bloated base may make explosions sound bigger but it also makes everything else sound worse. That said I think you are not skimping on your audio system you are using your money wisely and getting two uses for the price of one. When you are set up you will have a system that sounds so much better then the best of theaters. Enjoy.
Home Cinema Poisoning my System?
I love movies and enjoy tinkering with home cinema gear but my priority is music and I am concerned about the addition of home cinema equipment to my system and listening room. Is it possible to merely overlay the additional channels to an otherwise hardcore obssessive 2-channel system without ill effect? Rather than a combined system, it seems one could tap the audiophile pre-out into a separate processor/preamp/receiver etc which then went into the center and rear speakers, thereby being "separate" from the 2-channel system and switching the whole cheesey suburban Matrix demoing thing off when listeing to Wagner. Is this a popular configuration? If so, would it also make sense to use a matching stereo speaker for the center speaker instead of a home cinema center speaker? It seems to me that 3 ML SL-3s, for example, would be more "matched" than SL-3s and their center channel home cinema speaker. Thank you for your comments and ideas.