Do you use home theatre systems for mainly listening to CDs?

Question

I am thinking of buying a home theatre surround sound system, but mainly want it for playing compact discs (mainly classical), with occassional DVD use. Can anyone recommend anything suitable?

Answer 1

Whilst home theatre systems can be used to listen to music, it will sound muddled and imbalanced.

A stereo system is designed to put the music in front of you, as if you were watching a performance.  A home theatre system is designed to put you in the centre of the action, unlike watching a performance.

CDs are not encoded for surround sound, so a home theatre system makes a 'false' surround instead - and it sounds awful.

If  will only a home theatre system, make sure it is set to 'stereo' when playing CDs.  Oh, and DVD players don't produce good quality sound from CDs, either...

Answer 2

av receivers are invented for both movies and music due to the space constrain nowadays and also a convinience to consumer so they won't have too many electronics lying around the hall. however, as all are built into 1, thus u have to give and take abit on the music side. for all music cds, they are recorded in stereo formats so i would recommend u to get a stereo amp instead if music is your 1st priority. a good av receiver for both movies and music could cost you alot. a stereo amp set up is abt 2k, plus another cheap av setup (since you only watch dvd occasionally, you don't need o get a expensive one), abt 600plus, total u might be paying only about 3k or lesser. a set up like this will give you the best sound for your music.

you can try looking at the onkyo a-9555 stereo amp and yamaha mht-361 for the dvd system.

Answer 3

Actually, I do the opposite.  I use a high quality

2 channel stereo system to play CDs and DVDs.

A lot less complicated to set up and IMO, a lot

more genuine sound reproduction.

I recommend getting a good quality integrated

amplifier (or receiver if you listen to the radio),

and a pair of good floorstanding loudspeakers.

And a good CD or DVD player if you don't yet

have one to complete your system.

RULE OF THUMB:  For the same price, two

(good) speakers are better than five (average)

speakers with a (mediocre) powered sub.

Here are a couple of websites to point you in

the right direction to get you started on your quest...

Answer 4

Actually I have both.

If you will be playing mainly CDs you will save a lot of money/get better results buying a good stereo setup. With all the rage for surround sound, unless you plan to get into SACD/DVD-A music disks you can get some great older stereo amps and pairs of high end speakers for a fraction of the cost of a comparable surround system.

An alternative is to look for a higher end pre-HDMI 7.1 A/V receiver (lots of trade ins on the market as people have moved "up" to HDMI models) and a pair of good speakers for the front. Bi-amp the stereo pair using the rear channel amps (most 7.1 receivers allow this). Ignore the other channels or if you want surround for DVDs add a good centre channel and some inexpensive surround speakers and a sub. This won't give ideal surround sound because the speakers aren't timbre matched ... but for occasional use it will be fine (certainly better bang for the buck than buying matched surround speakers of similar quality to the stereo pair).

Most cities have shops that specialize in good used hi-fi equipment, or look on eBay, Craigslist or some websites for classified ads (e.g. AVS Forum). Some brands to consider for amps/receivers include Arcam, NAD, Pioneer Elite, Integra, and for speakers Klipsch, Boston, Mirage, Paradigm, B&W, Infinity, Snell, ...