I generally prefer Neo6, but in the last week or so, I've just been listening in Stereo, with no sub. The M80s can really push bass--it's great!

Thanks Mojo.. after reading your post last night .. I was playing around with my reciever and realized that I have those options on my Pioneer also .. I didn't realize there were settings for panorama, Dimension, etc.. Wooo Hoo more settings to play with ... My kids hate you .... hehehe... They are always freaking out when i come in and start adjusting the sound on vid games, movies and the such, while they are playing .. I always get the "Dad it sounds great quit screwin wiff it" To which I reply .. Ya it does , but it can sound better.. I didn't like much of what the panoramms did but the dimension modes made noticeable differnces as i flipped through them .. I Also added back in my Bose 301 to make a 7.1. I rewatched the Bridge scene from Saving Pvt Ryan and i was ducking from the bullets.. Also i was mistaken when said I had the sacd of the Eagles farwell tour.. I do have the DVD version and your right it is fantastic.. Adding in the bose just make's me want to get some Qs4/8 now to finish off my Axiom system .. Road trip .....

Avdude

One other thing I tried tonight with PLIIx that I felt made a worthy difference. You might want to try this. I tried it with Norah Jones: Not too late. This by the way is a great CD. Great songs, great sound quality. I loved it.

With the center on, Norah sank towards the back of my wall and gave a deeper-sounding, more laid back presentation. With the center channel off, Norah came forward and was quite tall and broad. One isn't necessarily better than the other; it simply depends on your mood.

By the way, the most realistic and intimate rendition was in stereo. Norah was dead centre 7 feet in front of me, exciting my cochlear duct with her relaxed, lonesome voice.

Mo, since you haven't mentioned it yet, note that the Center Width setting is also available, moving center channel material, such as vocalists, anywhere from all in the mains(with a similar phantom center effect as in Stereo) to all in the center speaker.

Hi John,

I did try adjusting the centre width setting. Like you say, it makes the centre narrow or wide but it doesn't ever make it as "open" (wide and tall) as stereo. At least it doesn't on my system.

BTW, do you know why higher dimension settings give me more bass? When I set the dimension to 0, my mid-bass almost disappears but when I set it to 6 it comes back.

There was one other thing I forgot to mention. Track 2 of this CD has a "funny-sounding" (kind of a very distorted wa-wah) trumpet...very cool by the way. In stereo, the trumpet is slightly to the left and slightly above the VP150 and it sounds "right". In PLII mode, the trumpet is in the left side of the VP150 and it sounds like it's buried in a box. If I turn the VP150's volume up enough, this effect gets minimized but does not completely go away.

Don't have anything definite on the bass matter, but for a guess I'll throw out that at the highest setting the ambience(which of course also includes bass)is being reproduced more from the main speakers which do better with the bass, while at the 0 setting it's being reproduced more from the surrounds with a lesser bass capacity.

Without doubt, I prefer multichannel recordings. For me DVD-audio and SACD are both superb. As for PLII,PLIIx, Neo-6, etc., I find that when a stereo CD has been recorded with high quality, use of these DSPs can result in a sound almost as good as a multi-channel recording. If the CD is not recorded well, I don't expect that any DSP will help it much.

Trouble following your first paragraph. My "guess" was based on your question about "mid-bass" handled at least in part by the speakers, but are you now indicating that a 20Hz tone played by the sub almost alone varies with the dimension setting? Also what was meant by no bass from any of the speakers(including the sub?)when in stereo?