TV Based System - Hifi vs. Studio Monitors

For tv don’t use a studio monitor…. 

What you need are speakers made by a company who makes not only fine stereo speakers but also Award Winning Studio Monitors & Award Winning car audio...
What you want are Dynaudio's...

Using the optical connection from the TV to your R2R DAC is a problem from the start, but maybe that’s all you got.  That said, look at ATC speakers as they’ll deliver the midrange clarity you’re looking for in spades.

- Get a Schiit SYN analog preamp processor and plug your R2R dac output into it.

https://www.schiit.com/products/syn

- Get 3 Yamaha HS8 monitors for your front stage (front/center/right), plug it into the SYN

- Get 2 Yamaha HS7 monitors for left surround/right surround

- You should be good to go for music, tv, movies, games, etc...

I agree with Soix. I’ve got an optical connection to an R2R dac to ATC speakers. It works. Most TV is midrange and they excel at that. 

A good measuring speaker is a good measuring speaker regardless of source. If your tv has an eARC enabled HDMI out you can potentially get better sound out of it than toslink. Use what ever speaker you like the look and sound of. 

Thanks to all that have posted.  Over the years, I’ve gone from a 5:2, 5:4:2 and now back to 2 channel for a second/TV system. I found putting your money into a simple but high quality 2 channel system is far more rewarding and better sounding than any surround system

My DAC, by EC Designs located in the Netherlands, works really well for a TV system. This R2R DAC takes only one input, which is Toslink. The serial input is  clocked through a serial-in-parallel-out buffer, resulting little to no jitter according to the designer/manufacturer. 

 I’ve now ordered a pair of studio monitors purchased blind. They are an interesting design. Coax, sealed box, a/b amplification, and active crossovers. And I have the option to purchase a pair of matching bass extenders. I’m looking forward to their arrival next week.

Studio monitors for a 2-channel TV based system may not be for everyone. But in my mind, you can’t beat the simplicity, eliminating surround processors, amps, etc. And the purpose built amps and active crossovers that come built in with studio monitors makes them no brainer  for this application.