Currently I have a multichannel surround sound setup (Rotel RSV-1066 preamp, RMB-1066 6 channel amp, Boston Acoustics speakers and a Phase Tech powered sub). Not low end but not spectacular. I recently moved to a new house and only setup 3.1 configuration and started looking at upgrading. I could continue along the home theater path, but am now thinking of putting all the money into a higher end two channel system instead. I know I'll loose the theater separation, but I'll have much better sounding components and music will be way better. So I started going down the path of auditioning some gear here in Phoenix. My requirements are that it needs to be usable daily with tv, movies and music and around 5-7k total. I might buy over time, getting loud speakers first with my current electronics, then sub out electronics later.
First I looked at Linn Akurate loudspeakers, Dynaudio Contour 1.4s, Focus Aria 936 and Aerial 6t. When reading reviews on the Focus and Aerial, I read about the Prima Luna ProLogue Premium which started me down the tube path. I liked the low maintenance of the auto-bias, bad tube indicators and long life (5-10k hours) which would make the system usable everyday (I think). Reading up on tubes and trying different ones got me really interested.
So does this sound like a reasonable system to attempt? How hot do they systems run? Any other amps recommended? Any suggested DtoA converters or just use the analog outs of my sources (I send all sources to a Pioneer Elite plasma over HDMI, then send the digital out to my preamp, using the tv as the source select).
Thanks for the help and any comments to this idea or any other would be appreciated.
