Now that home cinema has come of age, it's trying to claim audiophile respectability. David Price wonders if it's really possible to get the best of both worlds?

At HFW we get a number of enquiries from readers who wish to upgrade their kit ready for high resolution audio formats such as DVD-A and SACD. The problem for them is that they want to get the best from both multi-channel and two-channel and wish to know if the latest bunch of the multi-channel amplifiers will fit the bill for audiophile quality stereo and surround sound. Itís a question that not only we, but also the manufacturers have to answer. Hopefully we can do it here.

Just a few years back, there was but a handful of DVD players and AV receivers to choose from, and prices were as high as the novelty of being able to watch movies without VHS's many nasties. Now though, 'home cinema' has come of age and DVD players, AV amps, processors, receivers and surround sound 'speaker systems are ten a penny.

At the budget end prices have tumbled, and at the high end the quality has come on in leaps and bounds. Many British specialist hi-fi separates manufacturers are joining the fray - even 'purists' like Linn and Naim that once championed minimalist systems with 'single speaker listening rooms'! 

Buying a genuinely top notch AV separates system (complete with DVD player, preamp/processor and up to seven power amps and speakers) is still costs tens of thousands of pounds. However, there are now several 'premium' Japanese designs - such as Pioneer's brand new £2,500 VSA-AX10 - which attempt to bridge the gap between real hi-fi and home cinema. By using traditional audiophile practices including massive power supplies and high quality passive componentry, they're claimed to do 'two-channel' very well indeed. This then raises the question - why have a hi-fi anymore? 

Right now, there's a lot of this sort of thing going on. The classifieds are full of folk selling their expensive CD players - often bought around a decade ago - because they've replaced them with DVD machines. Presumably, Pioneer hopes to cash in when it's time to 'go surround-sound' and the trusty hi-fi amplifier gets the boot. After all, why stay with stereo if you can go multi-channel and lose practically no quality? This is the proverbial sixty four thousand dollar question. 

The allure of a home cinema system is obvious. DVD movies cost no more than music CDs did ten years ago - and from Spinal Tap to Steely Dan, there are some great music titles around, although sometimes the mixing leaves a lot to be desired. Even cheapo DVD players play movies quite well and it's fantastic to watch your favourite flick in Dolby Surround with a glass of vino (or a bag of oven chips) in your hand. Then there's the novelty factor - precisely what sparked CD player sales in the mid eighties - isn't it cool to have 'latest thing'? Finally, it's even harder to resist if your other half shows a sudden interest in home cinema and sanctions 'substantial expenditure' forthwith! 

So you want to spend some serious moolah on something that will give you the best of both worlds - all your favourite music at its best, and the full on AV experience to boot? Enter Pioneer's VSA-AX10 high end AV amplifier. Suitably set up with a brace of decent loudspeakers - using Mission 782s as fronts - it's fantastic in surround mode. 

You get an incredibly big hearted, barrel-chested, feisty performance with any half decent movie soundtrack. Fed by Pioneer's own DVD-747A DVD/SACD player, its National grid-sized power amp section goes extremely loud without any undue signs of stress. It goes down lower, tighter and harder than practically any other AV amp around, and runs all serious hi-fi designs, apart from the likes of Musical Fidelity's XA-200 power amps, very close. 

Again, in surround mode the midband is very clean and open, if rather brightly etched. Treble is detailed and vivid, which makes for startling surround-sound effects. It serves up an incredibly spacious acoustic - sometimes so much so that 'ye olde 5.1' can actually sound fuller, probably because it's less accurately spatially defined. It also has great dynamics - as the mad multi-channel workout that is The Matrix proves! 

All well and good then - conclusive proof that it's at the top of the surround-sound game. The problem comes when you dial up the 'Stereo' mode on that vast input selector and switch off your TV.  The thunderous bass continues - playing Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' this amp is capable of summoning up serious grunt and remains totally unfazed by transients. 

Unfortunately though, it simply isn't particularly tuneful. Whereas the likes of the Cyrus 7 integrated amp lack its tree-pulling power, it strings the notes together in a far more natural and musical fashion. Possibly less impressive in a boom-tizz sense, the Cyrus nevertheless gets you closer to the idea of music as a structured, cohesive communication. 

Move up the scale and the Pioneer continues to fall way back in two-channel mode. Despite being over three times the price of the hi-fi amp its midband falls way, way behind. The Cyrus presents a far wider and more transparent window on the music. Although not the most transparent solid-state amp yet devised by man, it still lets much of the recorded acoustic flood through the speakers, which in turn disappear into space. By contrast, there's far less depth perspective from the Pioneer, and a smaller, more constrained recorded acoustic overall.

Thanks to primitive early-eighties production values, The Associates' 'Party Fears Two' is an exceptionally tricky recording to reproduce accurately. The Cyrus comes close, its essentially warmish, soft demeanour and decent tonal colouring really helping things along. The VSA-AX10 doesn't - at heart it's a very old-style Japanese hi-fi amp and sounds cold, clinical, mid-forward and fatiguing. Treble is little better - crisp to the point of steeliness, it hardly makes you want to come back for more.

The Pioneer is a brilliant package, it's just that it has precious little to do with high-end hi-fi - or mid-fi for that matter. Despite its hefty price tag, state-of-the-art gizmos and generally faultless build and finish, it simply isn't any kind of substitute for a half-decent hi-fi amp. This is an important point - the sort of kit that many 'defectors' to multi-channel will be trading in (Audiolab 8000s, Pioneer A400s, NAD3020s) are far more musically satisfying. 

So don't kid yourself - home cinema is absolutely brilliant if you like movies, but hi-fi is still for the love of music. If you want both, then spend ten grand on a top of the range British made AV separates system - or better still just buy separate hi-fi and AV systems!

SOUND AFFECTS
The latest tricks to tempt you from two channel, THX ULTRA 2, the first THX variant, was developed for digital home cinema. It has both cinema and music modes and gives full eight-channel playback of any multi-channel movie soundtrack or music, using seven channels of amplification to play through a single fixed seven-speaker/one subwoofer layout. 

All program material with 5.1 channels or more is auto-detected and proprietary processing is applied that blends the directional and ambient surround information prior to replay through four surround speakers (two at the side and two at the back). Switchable Boundary Gain Compensation (BGC) alleviates boom in speakers mounted near walls. DTS 96/24 launched late last year. This new compression scheme allows 5.1 channel soundtracks to be encoded at a rate of 96kHz/24bits on standard DVD-Video discs. 

Previously, the only 96/24 audio on DVD titles had been 2 channel only recordings. The result is very high sound quality in full 5.1 mode, along with full-motion video for feature film soundtracks and music programmes. Another benefit is that DTS 96/24 tracks can be placed in the video sections of DVD-Audio discs, so that people without DVD-Audio players can enjoy multi-channel 96/24 audio on their DVD-Video players.

PIONEER VSA-AX10 - DETAILS & FEATURES
Sold under the 'Elite' brand name in Japan, this is a truly massive 'statement' product, designed for use in high resolution systems where money is not the major constraint. As you'd expect, it gets a dizzying array of features, some of which are relevant to two channel and some aren't. 

Movie freaks will love its THX Ultra2 certification (it's the first amplifier in the world to be thus equipped), Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS-ES Extended Surround formats, DTS 96/24 (another first), six 'Advanced Cinema' digital signal processing modes, and video transcoding which enables all video inputs to be output as component video. Make no mistake, it meets the video side of the equation brilliantly. 

One 'AV feature' that's interesting to audiophiles is its Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration System (MCACC), co-developed with AIR Studios. One of the most advanced auto set-up packages around, it uses a microphone (supplied) and a series of test tones to gauge your listening room's acoustic deficiencies, and then apply DSP (digital signal processing) to compensate for them. This is powerful and effective, and without it setting up all eight speakers (including centre channel and subwoofers) would be a task and a half. 

If you've started thinking this is just another AV amp packed full of gimmicks with no substance, then the Pioneer's built quality tends to suggest otherwise. Much of its 29.3kg weight seems to be down to its power supplies and power amplifiers. It follows the best audiophile practice in its use of a sturdy two-part, copper plated chassis into which the industrial strength power amplifier section, using high performance MOSFETs (giving 7x170W) is bolted. 

Serious attention to detail has been paid to the power supplies, with a massive audio-quality 650vA frame transformer and vast electrolytic smoothing capacitors serving up the juice. Hand-selected Burr-Brown PCM1704 DACs give 192kHz/24-bit conversion on all channels. Careful attention has been paid to shielding, even down to the use of copper screws on the outer casing. Chunky speaker binding posts and gold plated RCA phono socketry continue the quality theme round the back. 

Using this amp is relatively straightforward, providing you take time to read the 103 page instruction book! You get access to all the major functions from under the flap set into the chunky brushed aluminium front panel. All setting up is handled by clear On Screen Displays and a large remote complete with a backlit LC touch sensitive display. 

The MCACC calibration process is easy enough - simply plug in the supplied microphone, dial up the OSD and wait for a few minutes while the amp's brain measures the room acoustics using special test tones, compensates for your room's deficiencies, and configures your speakers.