Which came first, the chicken or the egg

That's all you got for this guy Leafs? Why say anything at all? And have you heard of 2channel bypass ever? That might be something you could look into because I think it negates your comment. To answer your question, Blob7, you start by doin a little research and askin some questions. You can buy a whole lot of *great* sounding system for $50k, a whole lot.

I will at least try and point you in the direction I'd go if I had the dough. But first, there is a problem here. You don't say anything about video. Does that have to be squeezed into the budget too? If so, it could be tough. You could spend $50k in just the projection unit and a screen alone, not to mention video scalers and satellite receivers. It doesn't say anything about that, so I will assume you have that all figured out.

As far as electronics, I will just skim across some basics. To begin, I would suggest a Theta Casablanca II HT preamp/processor as the brains of the outfit. It does it all, sounds great and no one will laugh at you ever for having it. In addition, the thing can't be obsolete because of the way it's built; you can update the hardware and the software any time a new format comes down the pike. Proceed and Meridian make similar units that would also do the trick.

For power, get the amperage of your choice. Just about all the top amp manufacturers are making amps in multichannel configurations. Look at Ead, Proceed, Bryston, Theta, etc. there are a lot of others. Usually the maker will have a flagship 2ch. amp and also a 5 channel amp. The 2ch. runs the mains, the 5ch. for the surrounds. Proceed, for example, makes the HPA2 at 250 wpc, and the Amp5 at 125 wpc--there's your 7 channels. Bryston makes the 4Bst(2 ch.) and the 9Bst(5ch.) which are the same power output as the Proceed.

For speakers, I say go with Aerial Acoustics. They are among the best, and again, noone could ever laugh.

For digital, you got a decision to make. Try and go with an all in one DVD/CD player, or split the work and buy both a DVD and a CD player. I got the Camelot ($2500 used) that does double duty and am quite happy with it. The Camelot sounds great for both 2ch. and HT, has tons of gizmos on it, and comes in second only to the Ayre DVD player (loaded $12k). But if you bought the Ayre, you'd have to laugh at yourself to keep from crying--at least I would.

Don't forget cables, this will be a big part of the budget and if you skimp, you'll be sorry you did. You can get cables from many on line dealers--but it is a pain to figure out what you'll need and what quality is good enough.

There is a ton more that I am presently too tired to write about, maybe some other of our fine membership will pick up where I am admittedly slacking. Hope I've helped.

Pathetic. Blob7, looks like you are on your own--good luck trying to get your info. May I suggest you try Audioreview instead, it looks like some in here are confused with your attempt to gather suggestions for building your HT system and instead would rather give a state of the union address on 2 channel and multichannel music playback.

You might even want to ask Audiogon to remove the Home Theater forum on your way out the door. Shame on them for teasing people into posting threads like yours with it in the first place.

It just burns you up doesn't it Leafs, that someone could want something different from what you want.

Just burns you up.

The only one that has been had here is Blob7. He comes in here as a new guy and posts for the second time looking for information. Where does he post? In the Home Theater Forum. What does he ask about? A hometheater pre/pro that will be for mainly HT use. What does he get? A load of crap talking about the big lie and about how you can't do what you want to do, so don't bother. Later he asks about a DVD/CD player. What does he get? More of the same UNSOLICITED flim-flam which can best be summed up as if you want answers, you first have to get by the 2 channel Gestapo around here--and you can't, so go away.

Why do I care? because the point of this forum is to try and help people the way they want to be helped, not how you think they should be helped. I am so grateful that I did not receive the same treatment after my first inquiry--I would not have stayed. Do I listen to vinyl? No. Do I go into the vinyl forum and tell everyone to quit wasting their money on new tone arms and how vinyl is dead? No. Why? Because that's a COMPLETE pisser.

I do not have one problem with any point of view expressed in this thread, not one. All the points about rooms and vinyl v. CD and problems with mixing HT and 2 ch. are all completely valid and deserving of our complete attention and respect. And I do respect those points of view. But I do have a problem with crapping on a thread to drive some related only remotely side-point home, *especially* if it's a new guy. You want to make your side point--fine, we would all love to hear all about it--start your own thread.

And go ahead, light me up with the negative marks, I could give a shit. I understand those that have trouble forming complete sentences use the voting system to participate--it's often the only way they can. But two things, if you smack me after *everything* I say, it loses it's deterrent effect and I know you're just a cheap vindictive coward. Second, your not going to make a dent.

He wanted something, didn't he Dekay? I'm led to believe he wanted 7.1 electronics in this thread. And I think he wanted a pre/pro and a DVD/CD player in the other thread. How is that fascinating? Is it more fascinating just because everyone learned he already had speakers? We all learned that only after the fact in this thread. Nice diversion, but has nothing to do with why I got upset here.

.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................Still burns you up huh? :-P

he he he.

I've always gotten it. There ain't a rule that says you have to be consistent with everything you post around here. If there was, none of us would be allowed to say anything after the first thing we said.

Leafs, not everybody wants the perfect sound. Some people want a compromise. Some people want a HT setup that will do a decent job on 2 ch. That's what I want. That's what I have. Will it match your tube/vinyl tweaked and tweased rig in 2ch.? No. Is it even close. Probably not. Is it exactly what I want? Yes. Have I been lied to? No. It's exactly what I want.

I have no explanation to give you. Ordinarily the membership is all but helpful, including all above, and there is no real bias against HT. You've read some other threads I'm sure, it's ordinarily pretty tame.

The Carl thing is a special case but it's just local politics I invite you to ignore. Carl has recently been banned and is intent on trying to martyrize himself. He and his stooge started a thread "attention members" as part of the official martyrizing canpaign, but it backfired because Carl doesn't know when to stop. Carl really loves this place but Carl has terrible judgment and an abrasive personality, as you have just seen, and has been asked to leave. Right now It's sorta like trying to get a bad genie back in the bottle. The closer you get to finally putting the stopper back in, the greater the outburts from whoever is going back in.

Blob7, No. You can't change your mind. And you have to be %100 consistent too. Otherwise people will dig through your previous posts and pick you to death. You don't have a lot to choose from, so it was really easy in your case. And even though you are new, you should know that is always easier than bucking up with something constructive. Now............... back to your inquiry.

Have you seen the latest thread on progressive scan DVD players? I post some links there that you really should consider reading. There is also some very sound advice given by some of our fine membership in that thread.

Removed at the request of poster.