Is a home theater even worth it or doable?

I dunno... two channel is sufficient for me, with my Klipsch Heresy IV speakers which project the sound out through the room.  I also had excellent results with an old pair of Pinnacle AC850, and with my trusty Epi 100.  I also think a high quality soundbar would be fine with me.

I used to have surround, but actually got tired of it.  My enjoyment of movies has not diminished since I've gone to two-channel (plus a modest sub) for watching.

I'm at a large expensive house right now, where I'm taking care of it for a business associate and touring northern Nevada while I'm at it.  He has an 85" TV in his big living room, with a Sonos Beam and no sub.  I am impressed; it works very well.  I'm sure the Sonos Arc is even better.  And, one can add wireless Sonos One surrounds if one wishes, and even a wireless sub, to either model.  I think such a system would be a good compromise, as the TV sound source.  Easy partner factor as well: turn on the TV and the sound engages immediately, without fussing with any other components.

That way I save my nice amp, etc., for music, while the partner - who has little interest in ultimate surround sound experience and prefers simplicity - can just turn on the TV and be good to go. I'm more and more leaning towards simplicity as well.   

I put a good deal of time and, for me, money into my two channel room. The theater room was less planned, but more appreciated by the family. The room is about 20x18 and fully opens at back and two steps down to a much larger room with little furniture. Sony XR-83A90J, Anthem AVM70, Emotive XPA Gen 3 Amps and powered HSU subs. Speakers were all Klipsch. Not exotic, not inexpensive, but easy to assemble 11.1 Atmos system . TV folks setup TV and Anthem ARC.

Why not just add a TV to your two channel system? We love watching TV and movies through our stereo, and never miss the extra channels of audio. We did invest in a very nice TV, one of those that renders black as very black; and it was well worth the money. For sound, I just grab the audio from the back of the TV with an optical cable and into the DAC-60 card of an Accuphase E-5000. And, by saving the expense of three or even more extra speakers, all of the investment can optimize the stereo pair. In our case, it's a pair of Borresen Z3 Cryos. We do have a pair of subs too, and the sheer power of this system imbues movies with most of the visceral sound one would get in a theater.

Regards, Oran

85” tv screen do not consider anything but Sony.

@sgreg1

+1

Over the last few years I needed to upgrade our tvs. There were realy only three choices: Samsung, LG, and Sony. The most reliable and best looking were always Sony. I bought two: a 77” OLED for our home theater and a 65” regular LED for our bedroom.

They both failed… the OLED in 14 months (top of the line so warrantee was 18 months.. they sent a brand new replacement. The regular LED failed at 11 months… within the 12 month warrantee… in twelve days a repair man came and replaced a module and it has been fine since.

Sony is statistically shown to be the most reliable and their top of the line has the longest warrantee, so after this experience (I had Sharp for about a decade since I worked there)… i’ll be buying top of the line Sony from now on.

They have excellent pictures as well.