I should clarify that most of my posts to begin with are in reference to CD's not DVDs which I'm not that picky over. In the case of CD's, as opposed to DVD-A's, for my hearing, as Shokhead I think implied, "All Natural 5 channel & sub sound" fills up my room and ears much more so than say either 2 speaker or 2 speaker and a sub sound, as for me, personally, it gives the music more depth. Why it does so, I can not give a technical and/or scientific explanation for. When I used the SPL settings, albeit digital, against: 1. Denon test tones using a 75 db set up, 2. Denon test tones using an 80 db set up and finally Denon test tones using the DB for the center speaker as ground 0, the sound when listening to my 5 all natural channel mode, still sounded much better when listening to CD's when I set all of my 5 satellite speaker DB levels to 0 and my sub to +2. The difference in all these settings with my unscientific one is my unscientific one gave the music much more depth while the SPL settings seemed to reduce the "soundstage" to one spot. I'm willing to concede I might be able to get different DB results with a "DVD tester" which I'm hoping Paul PCI can do and will also try analogue & digital readings. As I truly am not a stubborn masochist, if the settings from one of these tests produces better 5 channel CD sound, I'll use those settings instead of my 0 db & +2 for my sub. As Far as I'm concerned, prologic, Matrix, etc., changes the sound & this mode doesn't (or if technically it does, it does so in a way I can accept it).


Quote Originally Posted by toenail
Hershon- Are you trying to achieve good sound in A) Dolby Digital 5.1 B) Pro Logic (II or IIx) C) 5 channel stereo? It sounds like you're trying to get good sound from a 2 channel source reproduced in 5 channel stereo.

If you want multi channel music playback from a 2 channel source that loosly mimics DD 5.1 or DVD-A/SACD, just choose Pro Logic (II or IIx) Music setting on your receiver (assuming it has that option).This assumes output levels are where the manufacturer suggests for DD 5.1 set up, I believe 85db @ 0db reference.

If you want to entertain yourself or others while moving about the room, then try the 5 channel stereo, as that was what it was intended for. Don't expect that 5 channel stereo will sound anything like DD 5.1, DVD-A/SACD, Pro Logic (II or IIx) or any other configuration you can think of, it's not supposed to.