Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners 5 channel/neo 6/stereo/et all???

I have seen a quick post or two about playing music in neo 6 instead of 5 channel. What is the reason? There are way too many features on the receiver, and I can't get a fix on what actually sounds better. It seems to switch from cd to cd. Help!!!!! Thanks, Guy

Neo 6 builds six channels of sound out of two channel stereo, you wont get seperation of channels as you would with discreet multi-channel formats. If you are listening to to cd's that are in stereo format all it's doing is giving you an extra channel.

I like Neo6 a lot. It seems to work well, without stripping the highs out like DPLII does.

Neo6 is one of a bunch of "expand stereo content out to multiple channels" algorithms -- like Dolby Pro Logic (PL), PLII, the Logic7 algorithm offered by Harman Kardon and others. Different recordings sound best with different algorithms, but many of us find that Neo6 is a good choice for most stereo content.

It's not the same as a real 5+ channel recording (DVD, DVD-A, SACD) with 5 or more channels cabled from the player to the receiver, but it can sound really good anyways.

I played a jazz cd (probably from a record club...) and in neo 6 and plII virtually all sound was from the center channel. I had the settings at 8dB for the front speakers, 3dB for the center and surround.Is that due to the recording? What am I missing here? Thanks, Guy

Guy, at a performance the majority of sound(except for someone extremely close, such as the conductor)reaches the listeners as reflected ambience from various angles, rather than as direct sound from the front. When the microphones pick this up(in varying degrees), if the format is two channel it all has to be mixed into those two front channels because there's no place else to put it. Good ambience recovery processing, such as DPLII, Logic 7 and Neo:6 detect phase differences in the reflected ambient sound, remove it from the front channels, and steers it to the surrounds where it belongs. The result is a little more realism; you should experiment with these, especially using the center width and dimension adjustments allowed with DPLII.

Where in the hell do you learn this stuff??? Holy crap John, you are constantly amazing me with the things you know.

Libraries and the internet contain all human knowledge, Mike. The problem is finding it and then separating factual knowledge from subjective impressions which can be, and often are, wrong.

Possibly, you chose DTS:Neo6 Cinema and Dolby Pro Logic II Movie. Try checking each for the music setting; I've encountered this one before...

Is there a difference? I mean is there a DTS -Neo 6 Music,and Dolby PLII Music? (My beginner ignorance is showing)How do you check for the music settings? This sounds like it could be it, but obviously I'm still confused. I have the Denon 3802.I'll check in the morning, at work now.