re: Post pics of your system

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Thanks for the recommendations. Always wondered if I should get a sub or center channel.

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Home theatre enthusiasts will probably call these the two most important pieces of any home theatre system.

Music listeners (whom I usually more typically associate the word "audiophile" with, though it applies to the latter as well) essentially agree that 2.0 is all you need. And, having listened to some nice 2.0 systems, if they're set up right, you won't miss a center too much at all. But that's if you have a high quality pair of speakers that are meticulously set up and are sitting and listening at the right spot in the room. For a room with L or u shaped seating arrangements for home theatre purposes, a center becomes more necessary/valuable. It adds little to the music listening- that's essentially universally recorded in 2.0. If you care about soundstage, you'll turn the center off and move to the middle of the room. If you don't, you can leave it on and hear mono sound just fine. I, personally, think if you prefer Mono, you've never heard good Stereo. It's just not always practical for the number of people in the room or the application (you, alone, listening to music- stereo, hands down. You have a party with people moving around the room? It doesn't really matter. Good stereo sounds fine. Good mono sounds fine, too. Because no one is critically listening to the music).

That said, you'll do yourself a real favor in any application by starting with either a center or pair of fronts, not a HTIB, and slowly building the system as your budget allows. A HTIB lacks any sort of upgradeability, and you can get much better sound + ability to add on by going with a piecemealed system (you want to stay within a specific line of one brand for your fronts and center, the sub and rears, should you ever add them, don't need to match.