Listening to more music lately, even 5.1 dolby and dts convinced me that the vp150 just doesn’t have a chance against the M80s. So I find that 2ch direct/stereo sounds better than 5.1 with my setup. Since I watch most movies and play video games sitting in the sweet spot I thought what would it sound like with movies?
I switched to using a phantom center and at first thought that it’s just not right. But with a little more volume and more toe-in of the M80s everything came alive in a way I’d never heard before.
Here are some of the things I noticed so far:
1. The front soundstage seemed to expand in both width and depth.
2. The side soundstages seemed to expand out.
3. The 360 degree soundstage became even more seamless (something I didn’t think could happen based on what I’ve been listening to.)
4. Subtle sounds from the front became more noticeable. (I think this contributed to #3 as the ambient sounds from the front were more distinguishable.
5. Voices were lower requiring a little more volume which did not, however, cause them to be drowned out.
6. Voices seemed more natural and so far seem to sound better when panning.
I have not watched much off-axis so I’m not sure yet how viable this is for several viewers.
I could use some suggestions on music/movies/scenes with good side to side panning especially of voices, anything with good 360 degree pans and/or lots of ambient sounds.
So far I’ve watched all or parts of
Starwars I and III
Master and Commander
Appleseed
Kaena (opening scene) Wow!
The Fifth Element.
Fellowship of the Ring
Dean
That's interesting. I had the exact opposite experience with movies and a phantom centre even though I have my 80s toed in. I do quite enjoy the phantom for PLII music though.
Thanks for the suggestion HAY. That’s looks like exactly what I wanted. I even remember having read that post and then forgot about it.
Dean
I prefer the sound of the dialogue with my stereo setup when watching movies vs the 7.1 theater. But in the theater a center is necessary since not everyone can be in the sweet spot.
Dean, I believe that your original thought about the Center Width, Panorama and Dimension adjustments is correct. They only apply to adjusting the amounts of 2-channel material extracted and sent to your center or surround speakers in your 5.1 setup. 5.1 material such as DD or DTS tracks on DVDs already have discrete center and side surround channels and there's no need to extract sound from the mains to fill them.
As far as applying them when using 2-channel music sources(I always use DPLII(x) on all 2-channel music sources), I leave the Center Width setting at the default middle if using a center speaker(rather than the phantom I usually apply), adjust Dimension just slightly to send more ambience material to the surrounds, but usually leave it at the default middle and always leave Panorama at the default off, since sending direct sound rather than ambience from the mains to the surrounds is an unattractive "all channel stereo" effect that I don't care for.
When I tried using the phantom center on my old HK receiver it sounded pretty bad. The dialogue was not as clear or as loud as with the VP-150, and the volume levels had to be compensated. With the way they master the sound in some movies I cant hardly hear what they are saying sometimes, and other parts of the same movie are way too loud.
I agree with you, Big. I use the phantom centre for PLII/Neo modes only.
I’ve watched more movies using the phantom center and can clearly tell that it depends on how the center channel was recorded whether it sounds better or worse to me. Movies like Star Wars 3, and the LOTR movies sound better to me. Star Wars 1 and most others sound worse because the dialog is way too low even with the volume turned up.
On the movies that sound better to me I do have to turn up the volume but not so loud as to be distracting.
For some movies and some games Elder Scrolls: Oblivion for example the phantom center definitely sounds better to me but for most movies it sounds worse. The main thing I’ve learned from this is so far is that I don’t want to get rid of my center speaker I just want it to be another M80.