Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Listening Mode

Hi, when listening/watching to a two channel source such as VCR, TV, CD, FM etc etc....which of this do you prefer to
use:

For TV & VCR:
Dolby Prologic II Movie
DTS NEO 6 Cinema OR
Stereo

For Music (CD, FM)
Dolby Prologic II Music
DTS NEO 6 Music OR
Stereo

and of course why?

Okay..let's start the poll.....

For TV I usually use PL2-Music, because it doesn't collapse to the center quite as much as PL2-Cinema (particularly on programming that is not encoded for Dolby-Surround).

For serious music listening, I use stereo. For background music when I'm moving about the house sometimes I use 7-channel stereo.

I've found PL2 and DTS:Neo to be pretty disappointing for music. PL2 takes the air out of the music, DTS:Neo seems thin in the bass/midrange, and neither images as well as stereo when you're sitting in the sweetspot listening to a well-recorded CD.

For TV/VCR I almost always use NEO 6 THX Cinema. It gives very realistic surround qualities to normal stereo broadcasts.

For Music it's a toss-up between Stereo and Direct mode. The stereo mode is great for tracks with heavy bass (because of the sub), but direct mode (no subwoofer, no filtering by receiver) is great for softer, more detailed music.

For TV: most of the time now, dts NEO:6 CINEMA, it's got a nice enveloping soundfield and it doesn't collapse EVERYTHING to the center channel like DPL2 does; and every now and then, Logic7 Enhancement, again a nice sense of envelopement, just not as clear as dts NEO:6 IMO.
For music: for serious listening, good old fashioned 2-channel stereo; if I'm doing something that requires me to abandon my sweet spot, 5-channel stereo.