Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions Surround Modes...I'm totally lost

So my receiver finally came in. I hooked it up right away to get a head start on figuring it out before my Axiom order arrives. I've got a general question on receiver settings. What surround mode (or none) do you recommend for listening to stereo sources? I love my music and am REALLY looking forward to listening with a good receiver with good speakers.

The receiver is a Pioneer VSX-84TXSi. As with most receivers, it comes with a large number of surround modes. Now, I've pretty much got the surround modes figured out for the multi-channel sources (movies, xbox, etc), but I can't help feel that I'm missing something on the stereo sources (TV, iPod, CD) because none of the modes sound GREAT. Maybe its because I'm using my old Bose cubes I acquired while in college...be nice, at least three more weeks on my Axiom order...:P Anyway, I'm hoping this is more of a general question rather than a specific 84TXSi question.

Let's use the TV as an example. I use the tuner in the TV and pass the audio from the TV into the receiver via optical digital. The TV signal looks great. The OSD on the TV says "Stereo", so I'm assuming its sending two channel audio to the receiver (I might be wrong on that).

When the receiver is set to TV, I get audio that matches whats playing on the TV, so I know the connection is good. As I flip through the standard surround modes (PL Movie, PL Music, PL Game, PL, Neo:6 Cinema, Neo:6 Music) some sound "okay", some sound like the only speaker firing is the center channel. As I flip through the THX surround modes (PL2x Movie+THX, PL+THX, Neo:6+THX), I get basically the same result. Finally, the advanced surround modes (too numerous to list), just don't cut it. They seem to modify the audio in ways that I just don't like. There's a 7chStereo mode which sounds decent, but seems like the L/R surround speakers are way over prominent.

I can't help but wonder what mode, if any, those music lovers on this forum use on their receivers and why.

For now, I have it just set to stereo and since the volume is much lower than movies (that's normal, right?), I just crank up the volume.

Ahoj,

I find the audio material for TV shows to vary a great deal in quality. For the not so good stuff, I use just regular stereo (5 ch), on the stuff that is mixed better I use Neo6:Movie.

For music, I prefer to use Logic7:Music.

I suspect that most people here will tell you to use what sounds best to you. I also predict a lot of support in favour of plain old stereo.

Last, I find any of the sound enhancers to be little more than differnt amounts of reverb. I dislike it altogether.

Cheers,

J

In dolby PLIIx modes the receiver will send audio mostly to the center to keep the dialogue centered on the screen but will move the sound left or right as needed. It will do this for neo6 as well.

For music I like all my speakers getting used, so I listen in 6 channel stereo which is just the left sounds going to all left speakers and a portion of it to the centers and the same with the right side, it really fills a room up with sound.

As you stated I would suspect the biggest problem is the speakers, so wait till the Axioms arrive before coming to any conclusions as to which way to listen.

The problem is that some audio processing effects play games with the relative phase of sound going to the two channels, and that confuses the algorithms which try to extract surround information by looking at the difference between channels.

As a result, some recordings just won't work well at all with specific surround modes even though that mode is your favorite for most music.

I use Neo6 the most, followed by Logic 7, although recently I have found that Dolby PLII seems to work better now that I have been picking up more CDs from the early 70s.

Sometimes I get fed up playing with the surround modes and go back to 2 channel playback for a while. That *always* works well, and I still prefer it for serious listening.

Ken, don't use any movie mode(apparently what Jason really meant)on music, since it intentionally makes the center channel more prominent in order to help with movie dialog. Also don't use the all channel stereo mode, since all that does is duplicate the main channels in the surrounds, for more uniform sound all around the room for parties, etc. Still another set of modes to likely take a pass on are the "advanced" modes(Jazz Club, Beer Garden, Sportin' House, etc.)which add artificial reverb.

What to use on 2-channel music sources is DPLII Music, or Neo:6 Music, or maybe(not so obvious)Neural Surround, which also operates on regular 2-channel material in most receivers(I haven't checked the 84). Yes, better surround speakers will, of course, give you a better effect.

I never use a straight stereo mode on music, since I want processing which extracts the natural surround ambience from the front speakers and sends it to the surrounds where it belongs. I use DPLII Music generally(including adjustments of the dimension and center width settings), although I'm now also experimenting with the effect with Neural Surround.

Thanks for the input guys. As you say, the "advanced" modes are absolutely horrible. I'm quite sure they'll go unused. The 7ChSurround doesn't seem to use the distance and dB adjustments I've made when I calibrated the speakers. So, I agree..."advanced" modes are out.

I'll give the suggested PL and Neo modes a closer listen with some known good quality sources.

To be honest, for good ole 2-channel music listening I prefer either "direct" or "pure direct" modes, followed by "stereo" mode last. The first two shut down unused circuitry in the AVR's to reduce any possible crosstalk, and I truely hear a difference, not matter what some might tell you.

I simply using the AUTO setting on the receiver. If there is a menu choice on the DVD I am viewing, I'll possibly make the change there. Once in awhile I'll try a specific audio mode, but my feeling is that the material sounds best in the audio mode it was produced and intended to be heard.

I use the regular "auto" mode as well (like ray mentioned).

I dislike the DSP settings on my Yamaha, I just like the plain old Dolby Digital/DTS.

For music, i have been listening 2 channel, i have tried the "auto" mode on music (comes out pro logic default), but too much gets sent to the centre channel, its great for TV and such because the dialog gets sent to the centre channels. and I tried the 7 channel stereo, in which case there is no way to localize the instruments because all the speakers are just equal in dbs...

Thanks JohnK for the suggestion on stereo sources, now all I have to do is find those settings somehow

Edit: Wow, I just looked on the online manual. I have been using the "auto" mode, when in fact I can choose which mode it is!!!!!!!!! There is a like of like 10 different PL sources...including Neo 6 Music and PL Music...thanks John!! if I had never read this thread, I would be still trying to listen to some music 7 channel, and some music 2 channel...I am eager to try that PL Music and Neo 6 Music....woooo!

When using PL Music and Neo6 Music does the centre channel play? If it does, is there someway to make it so the decoder doesn't use the centre channel? I dislike it when listening to music and the centre channel can be heard...All I really want is Left/Right (with surrounds included)

It's all personal preference. There is no right or wrong mode to be in.

Personally, I watch all of my TV on DPLII. If it's a Dolby Digital stream, the receiver will automatically click over to Dolby Digital 5.1.

DVD's are always regular DD 5.1 or DTS.

For music, the vast majority of the time it's straight 2-channel stereo/direct (depending on the recording) or multi-channel line-in if it's multichannel SACD/DVD-A. Occasionally I've used the 5/7 channel stereo mode for parties and such, but it's rare. DPLII Music does a good job at turning 2 channel music into a 5 channel experience, but IMHO it degrades the experience and sounds too 'processed' to me. All of the other DSP modes (Hall, Chamber, Jazz, etc) sound way too manipulated to me, so I never use them. YMMV.