XDA-2 for use in 2.2 home theater?

[teaman]

Hi guys, I just wanted to see if anyone has done this.....or has even thought of doing this.

I was thinking of using an XDA-2 as a preamp in a 2.2 home theater setting. Right now I have an AVR running a 5.2 in a small sitting area and all five speakers are along the front wall. I really don't have the space to situate the rears and it seems like a waste for the surround speakers to be in front.

Since both my Bluray and Cable boxes have optical toslink connections I was thinking of running the XDA-2 to a UPA-2 or a pair of UPA-1's via XLR outs to power my front speakers and using the RCA outs to power my pair of subs. I am sure that the sound would improve by leaps and bounds over what the AVR is producing and since I have several dedicated home theaters set up throughout the house, we never really use this for movie watching anyways. I thought that amplifying the sound through two channels would improve my overall sound and clarity.

I really like my XDA-2 running a pair of Klipsch Heresy's, paired with a couple subs that kick up the bottom end powered by an XPA-2 in the basement so I thought this may work for this situation as well.

What do you think?

[bootman]

As long as you set the bluray to output 2ch pcm you should be good OK.
How are you planning on getting bass management done?
The xda can't do that.

[teaman]

Thanks bootman, I figured I could just use the sub controls to match the volume output as needed. This is how I have it configured in my basement set up. Everything is easily accessible so when I need more bass I can turn it up on the rear of the subs and when I don't I can turn it down.

[restless]

I run my Sub off the XSP-1 from the L/R RCA outputs, and my L/R speakers off the XLR feeds.

Sounds wonderful. For two channel, it works extremely well. I would assume the XDA should be as good.

[unsound]

I tried it, but wasn't happy with the results. The main issue was getting a good blend in between my speakers and subs. My guess is if you have speakers that don't go down low, you might have an easier time. The other issue was needing to switch XDA inputs and TV inputs. I got around that using my TV's optical output into the XDA-2 so I only needed to switch TV inputs, but I just wasn't happy with the sound. I even used a minidsp to to manage the subs, but my mains were still giving me an issue running full-range and I was restricted in their placement. Hopefully, your room is not as troublesome as mine.

[vcautokid]

There allot of 2.1 theaters out there, I was running my DC-1 that way with my Stealths.

[teaman]

Thanks. I am probably going to use my pair of Klipsch KG 2.2's as mains paired with the subs. It works great with the Heresy's but they have a much more pronounced soundstage than the KG 2.2's will provide. In the surround set up I am running now they sound really good paired with these subs so I figured removing the center and surrounds probably won't make too huge a difference. If I do proceed I will have to start from scratch, no amps or pre at this time.

[teaman]

Excellent. I just bought a pair of Outlaw mono blocks from a forum seller. These should pair well with the XDA-2......I hope!