Interesting thread!
I feel a lot of people are missing the point that the OP is just wanting to start a discussion on this topic for its own merit - not looking for something to buy for himself. On the other hand this is a 15 page thread and its easy enough for a new reader to have missed some detail about the original brief. Everyone on the forum probably has good intentions and there has been a bit of miscommunication.
Personally I totally see the point of this brief for my own use case.
I am looking for a system for music and TV in a small living room space, I have to use small speakers that require a sub - and have been looking at everything from 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1 systems.
I have been looking at AVRs for the multichannel setup, and its great that these have bass management. However, when you look at all the speakers around the room, the extra cost etc - you can end up thinking maybe I should just stick with stereo.
At that point, the extra channels feel redundant - and for many (myself included) all the video processing and hdmi ports etc are also unnecessary because I don't have any external boxes to plug in to the smart TV. Not to mention AVRs are mostly bulky (even the marantz Slimline ones) and quite ugly compared to many stereo amps; and although I'm no expert it does seem a lot say the stereo performance of AVRs is not as good.
So a stereo amp with bass management seems like a reasonable idea!
If I can add any value here: I noticed above there was some question as to whether the harmon kardon citation amp has a high pass filter. If you check the faq section on the web page, it says it does:
"
High pass filter
When the subwoofer is connected, the main channels are "Small", meaning that there is a high-pass filter. This ensures proper blending with the subwoofer.
Crossover settings
The Citation amp supports crossover settings in the range 50Hz - 120Hz. Default is 80Hz. |
"
I've been having a good look at the sonos and the HK as they can be expanded to a 4.1 setup down the line and there are no wasted channels of amplification or video processing etc, plus they're quite minimalist as objects.
One other option I had considered was getting an old avr with stereo preouts, hiding it somewhere, and using these to pass to my old rotel stereo amp for the L/R speakers. Then the avr would basically be doing the crossover for me and could add some more speakers for tv if desired. I know this is not consistent with the OP's brief (and I would prefer to have one box) but is there any disadvantage in doing this if I can run in a mode that bypasses the AVR processing etc?