Multi channel much better than stereo?

Tireguy, looks like Urban is board and looking for a fight. I'm not playing with him. Apparently he is right cause he says so, Very strongly. Okay Urban YOUR THE MASTER.

Urban, I like you are running Martin Logans for HT(I love Ht) but I also love Music. It took me a while to figure this out and with alot of help I got the best of both worlds. For HT I use my Lexicon DC-1. I also auditioned a BAT 3i tube preamp with my BAT vk200 and I must say my 2channel imo is out of this world, and much better than the surround mode. I believe my ht is setup properly cause when watching the Cell my wife and I had to keep pausing it cause we though someone was in the house. Watching U571 we thought are ht room turned in to a sub and the walls were falling in, kept looking over are heads for water leaks. On the patriot we almost were hit by bullets and cannon balls. So I am just a bit lost with where you were going with it. Not to affend you in anyway and I sincerely mean it, but you may want to look at upgrading your 2ch. Believe me, your ml can do better than what there doing now. Not to affend your amp but ML's like amps that double down to 2ohms. And balanced works great on them. IMHO
Pete

Sedond and fpeel have a valid point. And Urban also with the IMO remark(he is right, cause I'm writting this so it is my IMO). You can have your cake and eat it to. By setting up your ht to be 2channel, hence 2 system, being the reason for the by-pass loops that doug mentioned. Not to offend you Urban(which I don't need to say, because my remark may have that affect as offending you but hopeful not; like you said were hear to learn from each other). The ht processor will give you great ht enjoyment and okay music, but by using a preamp with a by-pass loop you get 2 systems in one. A good preamp solid or tube(I prefer tube) gives you great 2ch audio. You get depth, soundstage, clean, clear, dimentional music that a ht processor just can't do. I don't think they make a ht processor that can bring 2ch alive, like the musicans are right in the room with you. A good 2ch and I will say it; preamp tube will just blow the hole multi away. You just have to find one that gives surenegy to those speakers. And the right amp to match with the pre. So the price of a good pre will acomplish this. In 2ch, cause the system is so well balanced, room (which you will be having soon; you said you were building one) room very important and much over looked. Give the speakers room to breath(nothing behind them, check out the cardas.com website for room setup. With all this setup correctly you 2ch should sound like its playing in surround. So with that said, let 2ch pre's and ht processors do what they are ment to do. If your 2ch pre doesn't do better than your ht proc, than you need to search for that magical pre that will. Good luck Pete

Urban your killing me. First of all your not playing in the band, so get the hell off the stage and have a seat with the rest of us in the audience. Stop believing what you read. That's how I learned for myself. For example there's a place I went to that carries all Martin Logan speaker and yes they even have the statements there. So I go to this place thinking hell these guys got to have the right equipement here for the Martin's (they did carry every speaker of Martin's). But when I listened I was very disappointed. My soga continued, cause I was on a quest to make the martins do what I knew they could do. And for me it was bat gear. Now you can sit in your room and be convinced that you've reached the limit of your system, which is a good idea and less expensive. Or when you get bored you can go out and auditions some stuff at home. Reviews are just a guideline, but the true test is your own ears.

Here it is Urban.

Lexicon DC-1
Bat vk200
Martin Logan Aerius i
Interconnect RCA to Bal analyst plus(dc1 to vk200)
NHT sw2pi sub(works great on music and ht, but always
looking for better/thinking of going with 2
vmps or 2 genesis 928)
Martin Logan Cinema center
Pioneer elite DV F07
B&K amp for rear and center channels
All transparent cables thru out/yes aerius biwired

I've listened to the system in surround with the hell freezes over dvd and also in 2 channel. yes the surround sounds great, but the 2 channel kills it. I will be adding a Bat vk30 pre amp (tube). I have auditioned the bat 3i preamp(tubed) at home in the system listed above and I'm here to say that it smokes the surround and the 2 channel I get from the DC-1. The bat pre's have a by-pass loop so I can use the dc-1 for ht and the bat pre for 2 ch... But I know you like this word "Imo", I think the bat combo on the Martins is a perfect balance and creates the surenergy I've been looking for........................ So try some of these 2ch combo's and don't forget cables also play a role in the whole mess of things....

Urban I will be adding the ML CLS to my collection, My Aerius 's will have a new home, to the rear channels and my paradigms will vacate the rear and go to the sides, until I purchase the scripts for the sides. going for the 7.1 surround. I understand what your saying with martins all around, and I don't disagree, I sure they sound great. But believe me when I tell you, the 2channel sound with martin logans will surpass the 5.1 setup with the correct 2ch pre and amp combo. Hell I do love my Martins in surround mode, but since listening to the bat pre/bat amp in 2ch on the aerius i, I reached a new level in 2ch which in my IMO surpass the 5.1 setup. My wife approved of me spending the extra $2,000 to get the pre, so she agreed which is not easy. There are some nice pre's/amps combo's that really can make ML shine in 2ch mode. Good luck. Pete

Yes I did hear the proceed and I do not recall much about it. A friend of mine has both a DC-1 and a proceed avp. He said the dc-1 was better for ht and the proceed is better on music. But he said the ultimate was 2 separate systems. Which I'm doing by adding a tube pre amp and using the by-pass loop. For music I listen to everything under the sun, except for country and rap. Sorry abit short tonight, I'm on my way out the door. Urban go out and bring some of that 2ch stuff home to try. You got great speakers. Pete