What hifi system type do you have set up ?

[Feanor]

Hello it will be interesting to find out just how popular (at least out of our bunch of Hifi gurus,
just how popular 5+ channel is, and how much have stayed faithful to the 2-channel.

There should be enough options for you to be in one of them.

5+ channel basically covers every combination "MORE" than 1x pair of speakers.
i.e. 1x pair of fronts plus centre speaker, 1x pair of fronts, plus subwoofer, 4.1 speakers
5.1 speakers, 6.1 speakers, 6.2 speakers, 7.1 speakers, 11.1. etc.

I have a personal interest to find out just how many of you have a "balanced" connection
of your components.

Feedback is of course welcome

I'm not sure you ought to be so concerned about balanced vs. single-ended. Most people have both in their systems. For example, I used balance connections between my preamp and monoblock power amps and single-ended connections elsewhere. In my case this make sense because my preamp and amps are both fully balanced. Furthermore the amp manufacturer explicitly states that better performance will be achieved with balanced connections; (he explained why but the explanation is technically too complicated for me to accurately pass on).

In general, (and there might be exceptions), internally single-end components are best joined by single-ended connections. This makes sense because additional ciruitry is certainly necessary in the source to create the balanced output, then (possibly) more needed in the target (depending on its design) to recombined the balanced input. Between single-ended components the extra complexity is only justified in case of long cable runs or in environments with a lot of electrical noise, (because balanced connections have very high inherent external noise rejection).

I have both stereo (for music), and m/c (mostly for HT), systems. I "prefer" the stereo only because it has higher grade components: in a perfect world I would have a dedicated m/c system for music with high-grade components.