Since we didn’t have a place for Home Theater and general TV technology or TV based audio discussion.
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It’s funny that @dB_Cooper just created this thread because I happened to be looking at some photos of people’s 2 channel listening rooms on various forums/discords last night and it occurred to me that there was a TV between the speakers in every photo.
I have a dedicated 5.1 home theater that I don’t use for music. I use Definitive Technology speakers that I bought 20 years ago, powered by a fairly new Denon AV receiver.
The 2 front and center speakers all have a built in subwoofer. The 2 front speakers and 2 surround speakers at the back are bipolar (front and rear-facing drivers, or in the case of the surrounds, drivers on both sides), which creates a huge, slightly diffuse bubble of sound, and that diffuse sound is fantastic for movies but doesn’t work for music in my opinion.
I think the main speakers aren’t precise enough for 2 channel listening, but that’s not a problem in a home theater because the sound is anchored by the center speaker, which is not bipolar, so dialogue is crystal clear.
I don’t have a spare room for listening to music via speakers, so instead I have a nice desktop speaker setup that I’m happy with.
Anyway, I’m assuming that I’m probably in the minority having separate home theater and music setups. Am I? Do those of you who use the same setup for TV and music just use the 2 speakers, with no center or surrounds?
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If you are the minority, then you have company with me there too. Even before I flipped my music speakers from the tv wall to the short wall I had two set ups with no components being shared.
Sometimes with the right gear there are good options for a dual purpose system, for those who don’t want to have two isolated systems or have space issues. For example the older Arcam AVR were solid in 2.1 and 5.1 as it had a mode to essentially shut down parts of the amp to minimize noise. Another good AVR for dual purpose are the Anthem line, similar shut down mode in that too. Also both AVR’s have the ability to bi-amp speakers with the H/L inputs, which is a nice touch. In either case subwoofer is a necessity. It’s doable
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Funnily enough, my home theater rabbit hole last night landed me on the Anthem website. My Denon is a budget model (even by Denon standards), which I had to buy because my previous receiver didn’t have the right HDMI connectivity for my new TV. At some point, I will want to upgrade it and Anthem had a lot of good reviews.
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I separated out my 2 channel from my HT setup years ago and never looked back, i am so very fortunate to have the spare room to do so, I appreciate the fact greatly and no longer take it for granted 
@dB_Cooper making fun of my gigantic coffee table and the annoyance of having furniture offset in order for me to attempt to make a sweet spot drove me to clear 2 rooms and dedicate them to 2 channel, Later on I cleared out my last living room space and then dedicated that to a small 5.2 HT 
Heck, I got rid of my dining room and made a nice 2.1 HT set up and coffee nook for my missus and made sure to give her a nice 2.0 t.v. Set up in the bedroom and kitchen too 
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I have a dedicated home theater room, which I don’t use to listen to music.
I also have 2.1 on my living room TV, also don’t use it for music.
What your trying to do with movies and music is just different.
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Here’s what I’m working with.
TV: Sony BRAVIA XR 55” A80CL
Video: Apple TV 4k 3rd Gen
Speakers: Dynaudio LYD 5 Monitors
Sub: Rhythmic 12"
DAC: Pontus II
Preamp: Schiit Freya M
Power and Cables, all handmedowns from previous 2-CH system upgrades
Relatively happy with things originally but as I’ve had the TV for over a year now, I started upgrading power, and installing IFI AC Purifiers and using decent cables left over from my 2-CH upgrades. I started to notice meaningful improvement in picture quality and detail. Thus, a new rabit hole where I’m going to upgrade the Apple TV to a modded unit removing the built in switched power supply and will use an external LPS. Also since @elementze mocked my “dirty bits” since I’m pulling audio via TosLink from the TV right into the DAC, I just picked up a Wired4Sound optical reclocker. Everything configured as 2.1 stereo.
The Pontus II DAC was a big improvement over the previous Topping D70 I was using. The staging, placing of dialogue and sound that tracks within the image is so much improved.
The DAC and Preamp are inside the cabinet, one thing I had to do for the volume on the preamp, was get one of those USB IR remote repeaters where one end is visible (stuck it on the side of the Apple TV) and the other end I stuck it on the IR receiver of the preamp. Really low cost solution and worked like a charm.
Power for all of the “little boxes” is currently coming from either IFI power supplies or a LIPO Battery backup unit that I’m power up with a IFI power supply. So trying to keep power and cabling clean, neat and tidy.
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Applaud your efforts to eke out and keep things tidy, I envy your eye sight to pick up on the improved picture too.
I understand what you’re try to do here, however this is still optimized for 2 channel rather than 5.1/7.1 HT, the center channel will be getting a direct feed , as will the other supporting speakers vs. requiring a mixdown into 2.0.
This is by no means a knock, only you are leaving a lot left on the table for the 5.1/7.1 channel mix. In this situation you would be better served using a soundbar for movie/tv entertainment and the 2.0 for music.
As @Polygonhell indicated “ movies and music is just different”
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No, the Apple TV audio output is set to Stereo and thus all I’m getting is 2.1, so no center channel or anything like that. The TV is basically spitting out what it gets from the Apple TV. So this is a legit 2 channel stereo output with the sub channel coming from a spare out on the preamp.
If one is willing to give up multi channel set up for TV, you’d be surprised how good just a regular stereo output can sound! I just don’t have the space for anything more.
Anyway, despite the setup, 90% of the time it’s just my wife using her bluetooth earbuds on it anyway! lol
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At the end of the day, this is the only thing which matters!
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May as well:
Project Slowburn
State of Things
- I have a living room to work with, it is… shaped…
Good news: Non-horrible audio wise
Bad news: Only suitable image-device is projector and screen
Goals
- Socially acceptable Living Room with a Dinning table in a corner
- At least 6.0 speaker setup
- Biggest screen I can fit
The Haves:
(It is not hoarding when you know you have it)
- B&W 602’s
- B&W CM2’s
- Marantz PM6006
Marantz CD6006- Marantz PM-80 II
- Tascam BD-MP4K
The Wants:
(Subject to change without any thought)
- passively cooled HTPC
- Sony VPL-XW5000ES
- Screen: 120" diagonal
- 3x Avantone CLA-100
- 4x DALI Oberon On-Wall
- 1x B&W HTM6
- Soekris 2541
- Atoll IN 300 Evo
Why?
-
The Hifi-chain would be Tascam [SPDIF] >Soekris [XLR] > Atoll [speaker cable] > 602’s
-
The cinema-chain is Tascam [RCA] > Atoll/Avantone [speaker cable] > 602’s, etc.
In this mode, the Atoll acts only as a power amp.
The unsolved Problems:
- Lighting, yes there is a regular lamp, however…
- The ceiling cant bear that much load
- Shelf space, I am out of space for disks (movies and CDs)
- Has anyone here ever put a Center Channel on wheels?
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Bringing this up before its too late. But do any of the living room outlets share/not share an electrical circuit with the kitchen fridge? Fridges seem to be noise makers both physically and electrically.
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I think the entire kitchen is on its own circuits, would have to double check though.
The fridge is from last year and pretty quiet.
Checked, Kitchen outlets are on their own circuit.
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Yeah I’m fortunate enough to have well thought out electrical layout and the kitchen is on its own circuit which I know is a big help.
Another thing to consider in a living room environment is lighting. Anything with a ballast, anything with a dimmer and anything with a transformer is inherently WAY noisy. So avoid altogether or turn off when not in use; and certainly don’t use that type of lighting as accent lighting.
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Well, I said I’d document it, so here it is.
Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen. (A2169 64GB) A number of posts and clips on YouTube on disassembly and why it’s a superior build to the new Gen 3.
Bottom removed and the first thing you see is the fan assembly. Yes this version has a fan because it’s got a lot of HW that is completely sealed in an aluminum clam shell assembly.
Fan assembly removed and that’s the logic section with the A12 processor on the left, note the hefty clock on the bottom left near it and all of the seals with heatsink paste for the processor and the aluminum shells as well. Everything is isolated and very well sealed. Also note that the noisy antenna connectors are outside the sealed areas. As Tuco Salamanca would say, tight tight tight design.
The bottom side of the same board, a log of stuff there, the HDMI connector and Ethernet jack. Not the RFI coating applied to the processor on the left side and again, everything isolated an sealed tight. All the screws had blue Locktite applied.
And underneath that board is the other half of the machined aluminum clam shell, five bolts again all with blue locktite. And then the bottom, which is actually the top when built, is the switched power supply.
Interesting design choice to keep the noisy board completely isolated from the rest of the system. The only connection is the two silver threaded tubes that “pass through” to the other board, so again very tidy design.
Here I’m just making a note of the + and - sides of the power feed through as nothing is labeled.
Confirmed voltage and polarity. It’s actually a LiteOn switched power supply.
BTW, fun fact. I’ve had this Fluke multi meter since 1990 and it’s still kicking!
I built myself a cable with some Canare quad star cable I had and soldered ring terminals on it and used the screws to bolt them down in place of the power supply. The whole point of the project was to remove the power supply so I could use a quality external PS.
I was freaking out at this point since when I went to put it together the ring terminals were a fraction of a millimeter from the casing and I was so afraid of shorting things, spent about an hour thinking of how I would connect the cable until I realized that the metal half of this clam shell had pressed in plastic shell, maybe ABS or some other type of polymer. Anyway, once I realized that it was lined with plastic and I wouldn’t short it accidentally, it was a big sigh of relief. I was scared that any expansion with heat could short it but freakout averted. 
…anyway, at this point it was getting late and I needed to pick up the wife, so I rushed the assembly and forgot to take pics of the reassembly process. A lot of screws with only the five bolts for the power board left over.
Here it is all back together.
Last pic, never miss an opportunity to score on style points. The power cable I terminated externally with a 2.1 DC connector which by a stroke of luck happened to have the same thread size as an Amphenol RCA connector barrel. So I used it as a means to make it all nice and neat and again, help with noise right? not the greatest pic here but it illustrates the point.
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