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The Salk's are an excellent choice, if you possibly can get the center at the same time you would have made a huge upgrade and the other stuff can be done as money allows.
Van Alstine amps with Salk is a no-brainer for great sound on a budget. Since all the dialog is in the center speaker a good amp is a must, one idea would be to get the AVA Synergy 3 channel amp for the front and center speakers. Usually not much happens in the rear surrounds so your existing speakers and receiver will work just fine for the surrounds for a while.
Adding a turntable will complicate things, do you have a lot of records or just starting out?
I hope to get at very least the front 3 (Left, right, center) to start, if not all 5. Using SongSurround I's for the rears.Van Alstine is certainly on my shortlist for amps. Two questions about using the 3 channel amp. 1. Can you utilize 3 channel audio for vinyl listening? I am pretty sure it's simply 2 channel output, so I don't know what sound would be sent to the center. Or maybe I am completely misunderstanding this.
2. I don't have a center pre-out on my current receiver, and I therefore won't be able to utilize the 3 channels. Is this right?
I am learning VERY quickly how much a turntable complicates things. I am just starting out on my collection, so am by no means an expert, but am very excited about the journey.
In general, especially on most sane budgets, IMO, you can't serve two masters.Trying to get a good 2 channel and HT setup, on a budget, will only end up with both sounding less than good.
If I were you, I would ditch the 5.1 HT, and run 2 channel HT. This will allow you to maximize the sound of one peice of the pie.Since it was the vinyl setup you heard that lit the upgrade flame, you should start with building the best 2 channel sound you can, given your budget.You could almost afford the HTL 2s for the cost of the 5 Song series speakers.While listening to vinyl, only two speakers will matter. The HTL2s will do a more than sufficient job with creating a solid phantom center.
In general, especially on most sane budgets, IMO, you can't serve two masters.
I completely understand that this won't be an amazing system to truly impress everyone, but if I can end up with good quality music and decent Home Theater. Hence the migration away from a single AVR that powers everything into a more music focused system through amps and vinyl with a followup HT.I've thought about saving up for the Veracity ST's, but I think I have heard the SongTowers and for me, they were nothing short of incredible.
You could have the SongTowers and something like a brand new Rogue Audio Cronus integrated. The integrated has a built in phono stage, and a head phone output. Or, you could buy something like the Rogue Audio Sphinx, and a solid DAC, and really have some great sound. Great 2 Channel, and good HT.
Even though the Outlaw 975 has analog inputs I don't use mine as a pre-amp for the record player, CD/music streamer, or FM tuner - I just use it for movies and TV so I don't know how it sounds or revealing it is with more delicate material, with bombastic video sounds it works great.
Some pre-amp/receivers, but not all, have phono pre-amps built in otherwise you are going to need another box.
Save your Denon receiver, but buy the best 2 channel dac/preamp/amp system you can afford based around the Salk Songtowers (or whatever speakers you settle on). If you deem necessary after living with the new 2 ch rig awhile, add a cheap center channel speaker & sub with Denon recvr incl. bypass to main speakers.
So are you saying that by even introducing the AVR acting as a purely a passthrough, would degrade the sound quality significantly? (Asking honestly, because I don't know). Since my plan is to do almost exactly what you suggest, but in step 3. My thought was if I got a turntable first, I could at least listen to vinyl (even if it's not amazing) and then upgrade with a dedicated amp/preamp, etc.
All receivers, and even some really expensive processors, are a sonic compromise. This is my experience, but I once was where you are. I had a Pioneer Elite receiver that was somewhere around 1500 dollars when I bought it. It had a phono preamp, and I used it for a time with my turntable. I used external amplifiers, Odysseys at the time I believe. One of my single biggest HOLY COW audio moments, was when I replaced that receiver with a $900 dollar tube preamp. It wasn't even a competition. That started my move away from HT, and my obsession with spending way to much on 2-channel gear. Not much since however, regardless of what I have spent, compared to that drastic change in sound quality. The receiver was lifeless, gray, dynamic less, and granular compared to the tube preamp. Keep in mind this was using the same amplifiers. Also keep in mind, at the time, I was using speakers that were not nearly as good as the Songtowers. Passthrough on a receiver, still goes through its analog section (not so great). The passthrough just bypasses the receivers digital processing efforts. Where are you located? I would look on the Salk board, and see if you could find someone using Songtowers in a 2 Channel HT setup. I have some Exotica 3s in a 2 channel HT setup, if you are local. Goodluck!
Thank you! This is exactly what I wanted to know. It now seems that I might need to simplify and look at 2 separate systems. Keeping a tube pre-amp and amplifier separate, and then maybe just let the denon live on. Follow up question. In an effort to not drive my wife absolutely crazy, is there a way to connect this to sacrifice HT, but not require me to plug/unplug speaker cables every time we switch from TV/HT to Music? I have seen audio cable switches, would that work? Could i send the L/R channels of my HT into the tube pre-amp and just accept it will sound different? Am I completely up shit creek with this one?
Absolutely. Getting "good quality music" is incompatible with an HT system. It's not designed to do that. And you want to throw vinyl in there, too? No freakin' way!
