Which came first, the chicken or the egg

Thanks Jthunders,I read some of his other posts and he's not worth wasting a reply on. But maybe Audiogon should think about changing their name to say....Snake pit or.... Hen house so "newbies" could avoid wasting any time.
Could someone please post the rules of engagement. I guess its ok to take a cheap shot as long as you follow it up with "if I'm wrong (but I've never been wrong in my life) I'm sorry.
Do you miserably little whiners hold hands when your not writing stupid posts, that have nothing to do with the questions? And... oh..... if I'm wrong, I'm sorry.

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.

Leafs, it is probably better that you wait a while longer before jumping into the higher end of home theater/2channel because the better manufacturers are only beginning to catch up with the newest surround formats that Denon already accomodated in their AVR-5800. I heartily recommend a REL sub, as it can be set up for reciving both the speaker out direct, or the .1 subwoofer out. This alows precise set up for stereo listening and 5.1 audio. At their website (www.rel.net) there is a review of the Strata II by Robert Harley that is worth reading, the same can be said of the Strata III or the Stadium series. Also,you really should try to have all your speakers from the same manufacturer for 5, or 6. I am in the process of switching to Musical Fidelity gear and find it to be a worthy challenger to some very good analogue systems. BLOB..., that is kind of a "medium" sized room you are working with and you can probably be satisfied with a 200 Watt per channel Classe` or Theta amp. I don't think you need a monster 400 watt per channel amp. You could probably use the Conrad Johnson or Musical Fidelity 120 per channel amps to great satisfaction, but if budget permits the former are probably best. The JM Labs are very "amp sensitive" , and really need to be well matched. I have heard them sound dull and uninvolving with Krell amplification and absolutely gorgeous with Lamm monoblocks. They are one of many very good choices, but my first choice would have been the whole Aeriel set up. When you say you are closing a deal, but can get out of it if you change your mind, I have no problem with that at all. Sounds like your on the way to a great system. Good luck.

Thanks for the suggestion.At some point I will be moving my Super Conquests into the front position of my HT setup.Moving the Triumphs to the back.At that point i will be needing new speakers for my 2 Channel set up.
I will look into the sub you suggested.

Blob7 - Intermingled here, you've gotten some good advice on your original question. For many of the reasons given above and a few more, I have a dual-purpose system in a 14x18x8 room and am very satisfied with it's performance on both HT and 2ch. I would heartily endorse your notion of going for the Pioneer PRO-710 - if I was upgrading my TV right now, that's the line I'd go for, though I'd probably get the 610 for space considerations.

You'll never get a consensus on what to buy, but you'll get plenty of suggestions on good gear. A couple suggestions I'd give you - Lexicon is coming out with their latest high-end processor, the MC-12. They have traditionally excelled at the HT aspects of the pre/pro, and I'd expect this model to push the envelope more. It's a completely new architecture offering the same "future-proof" design characteristics (which I never believe from any manufacturer, but that's another point). For speakers, I'm a big Dynaudio fan, but they don't really have a full assortment of surrounds and their center channel is nothing special. With your budget, you could look at the Revels - they do have special center and surrounds (pricey too).

I agree with the point made that you don't need big Class A amps for that size room, nor would I recommend them, especially if they're going to be in the same room (hot!). I'd opt for a dedicated 2ch amp for the fronts that was of higher power and performance, and then a 5-channel for the centers / surrounds. Many companies offer such an assortment

And I'll throw my plug in for the value of high-end HT gear as well - movies are an art form every bit as much as music (though not having been around as long historically). To write off the reproduction of movies as nothing more than the recreation of explosions, etc. is just too simple. First off, the movie soundtrack is more prominent than ever these days - reviewers of audio gear, too, reference soundtracks more often than ever. Yes, I'm aware that it's not that "crappy" DD or DTS mix they're listening to, but the benefits the soundtrack gets from a higher-end system while playing a movie are substantial. Second, dialogue clarity is essential to getting the fullest playback of a movie. So is dynamic range, etc. etc. I would even argue that hearing a glass shatter "accurately" enhances the experience - that wasn't the case with my nice Denon reciever but most certainly is the case with my Lexicon MC-1. Is it possible to enjoy movies without this level of detail? Sure, just like it's possible to enjoy music on a boom box or mid-fi system. Just like high-end audio, it's not important to everyone, but not everyone who's into HT can be satisfied by a trip to Best Buy either. -Kirk

Kt, any word if that Lexicon will have an analogue direct function, allowing my SACD players analogue outs a straight path, without further digital processing?

Bmpnyc- All the press releases and documentation cite an analogue pass-through (direct) function, so the answer is definitely yes for 2-channel analog direct. There is a Q&A with a Lexicon technical type who says there will be analog direct for the full 5.1 input, so hopefully the answer is yes across the board. -Kirk

Thanks Kirk...hmmm... Now, where can I get a few grand extra?

They seem pretty proud of it - it's supposed to list for $9K in the single-ended version, $10K for the balanced version. They have the usual very good trade in program scheduled for the fall and say that a properly equipped MC-1 will be worth $4K towards an MC-12. Figuring a 10-15% discount off list, I'm figuring I'm going to have to find about $4K. That's a lot of car seats and furniture to search through.....