5 REASONS WHY AV RECEIVERS ARE BETTER FOR STEREO
TOP 5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER A HOME THEATER RECEIVER FOR TWO CHANNEL LISTENING BY ANDREW ROBINSON. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 9, 2022.
5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD USE A HOME THEATER RECEIVER FOR TWO CHANNEL LISTENING
Looking to put together a two channel stereo setup in 2022? Buy a home theater receiver. Yeah, I said it, here’s FIVE reasons an AV receiver may be right for you and your hifi needs in 2022.
If you ask an audiophile or hifi purist what’s the best way to piece together a high performance stereo setup they’ll tell you to piece one together, as in piece-by-piece. And while they’re not necessarily wrong, it is an antiquated way of going about enjoying two channel audio in the modern era. Nothing against hifi separates, but nowadays you can do SO much more with less –as in less boxes and often with WAY less money. One of the BEST ways to enjoy two-channel audio at a surprisingly high yet more affordable level is to shop for an AV or surround sound receiver over a stereo integrated amplifier.
TRADITIONAL TWO-CHANNEL STEREO SETUP
Before we get into using an AVR, let’s first go over what a traditional two-channel, stereo setup looks like. Back in the day if you wanted to enjoy higher end audio playback you needed two speakers, an amplifier, a preamp, a source component in the form of say a record player or CD player and a whole mess of cables to connect everything together. This is how it was done back in the day and this is how it is largely STILL done today.
Sure, stereo receivers and integrated amplifiers have merged separate amplifiers and preamps into a single chassis, and some even have sources like streaming music players built in, but these types of pieces are still somewhat the exception rather than the norm in hifi –though times they are a changin’. But for the most part, if you want to build a traditional hifi setup –even in 2022 –you’re going to need to buy multiple components and find a place to put all of them, not to mention, set them up, along with your speakers, in such a way as to maximize their performance because they’re not likely to have any setup aids to help streamline the process.
USING AN AV RECEIVER FOR YOUR TWO CHANNEL NEEDS
Which is precisely why I would encourage you to take a different, more radical approach and go with an AV receiver for your two channel needs.
SAVE SPACE AND MONEY
The first way AV or home theater surround sound receivers are better than their two channel counterparts is simple, they’re largely all inclusive. With an AV receiver you get an amplifier and not just an amplifier for two speakers but amplification for multiple speakers, so if you want to expand into home theater or surround sound down the road, you can! Something you can’t say should you go with a stereo anything! With all those extra channels of amplification you get greater flexibility with respect to bi-amping, meaning more precious power for your speakers!
You also get a built-in preamp with tons of flexibility, not to mention built-in streaming music capability as well as smart home integration. A lot of AV receivers nowadays even have decent phono preamps so you can connect a record player to them. Having multiple products essentially in one box allows you to save space and money.
Focal Aria Speakers with Yamaha home theater receiver and SVS subwoofer. Shown with 85” Sony TV. Photo credit: Andrew Robinson.
WATCH TV WITH GREAT SOUND
I don’t know about you, but most of us don’t have the option to have a dedicated listening room that is separate from our primary living space. I suspect a lot of you have two channel setups in rooms that also host your TV (not to mention other family members). With an AV receiver as the centerpiece of your two channel rig, you can connect it to your TV in ways that give you the flexibility to enjoy both music AND movies through the same system–albeit in stereo –so no more watching movies through crappy TV speakers! To those of you allergic to soundbars, you’re welcome! The other benefit to this type of a hybrid setup is that most modern TVs nowadays have a lot of Apps for both streaming movies and music built-in, so if your AV receiver does not support, say Apple Music, there’s a good chance your TV will, so you’ll never be without your favorite music service!
SUBWOOFER INTEGRATION
One of the BIGGEST upgrades you can do to any loudspeaker setup be it two channel or home theater is to integrate a subwoofer. And while it is becoming increasingly MORE common for hifi components like integrated amps and stereo preamps to have a subwoofer output, even the best, most forward-thinking hifi components can’t hold a candle to an AV receiver when it comes to subwoofer integration! Plus, many AVRs nowadays allow you to connect multiple subwoofers. Now multiple subwoofers does not mean double the bass, which is a common misconception, multiple subwoofers means potentially more balanced bass, spread out over a wider area or sweet spot. Can you get away with a single subwoofer? Yes, of course you can –I do most days. But if given the option, is more than one sub typically better? Yep!
ROOM CORRECTION
In my humble opinion, room correction software from the likes of DIRAC, Audyssey, YPAO and others is hands-down the BIGGEST reason why an AV receiver makes way more sense for two channel listening than traditional two channel components. Much like dedicated listening spaces, not everyone has the luxury of setting up their room in such a way so that their loudspeakers, or system is able to sound its best without any additional assistance in the form of acoustic panels or other such treatments. It’s also equally possible that just don’t want to live inside a padded cell. This is where room correction software comes in.
While software like DIRAC isn’t a magic bullet in that it can’t completely defy the laws of physics and allow you to have reference-caliber sound in a space with truly poor speaker placement and audible reflections; I’m will argue that software such as this WILL HAVE a more profound effect on your system’s overall clarity and sound quality in most typical living spaces than hanging an acoustic panel or twelve.
Nothing against acoustic panels, they’re great, and do work, but they’re often very narrow bandwidth with respect to their effectiveness, meaning you need a fair amount of them, and multiple different types to correct for every potential sonic anomaly that may plague your setup. Software like DIRAC and Audyssey are mostly full-range solutions and can tackle sonic baddies like peaks, dips and reverb/decay times using processing and filters in ways old-school bass traps and whatnot can’t. And yes, DIRAC and Audyssey work in stereo just as well as they do multi-channel.
FLEXIBILITY
I alluded to this one earlier, but one of the greatest strengths about going with an AVR over an integrated amplifier has to do with flexibility. While you may consider yourself a two-channel purist today, that isn’t to say you’re going to be one tomorrow –or that you wouldn’t benefit from, adding a center channel to your rig for better center imaging or vocal clarity down the road. In this respect, AVRs make loads of sense (to me), because as times and technology change, so too does one’s tastes, and I just feel that AV receivers are more or less aimed at giving you everything you may need today as well as features you may not know you need until you decide you want them later.
So that’s it, those are my five reasons for why I think AV receivers should be on your short list of components to consider if you’re looking to put together a high performance two channel system in 2022.
