• 04-11-2004, 11:45 PM
    hershon
    Are you better playing CD's on 3 speakers than prologic?
    Are you going to get better quality listening sound playing "regular" recorded CD's on a home theater on a 3 speaker (subwoofer & l & right speakers) mode or listening at pro logic (all 6 speakers) mode? I listen in a normal sized living room in an apartment and I play volume loud but not overbearing loud that it would bother neighbors. Does Pro Logic (I have pro logic 1) actually change the way the instruments were meant to be heard when recorded?
  • 04-12-2004, 08:00 AM
    N. Abstentia
    You'll get better quality playing regular 2 channel CD's on a 2 channel system the way it's supposed to be played.
  • 04-12-2004, 08:01 AM
    Sir Terrence the Terrible
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by hershon
    Are you going to get better quality listening sound playing "regular" recorded CD's on a home theater on a 3 speaker (subwoofer & l & right speakers) mode or listening at pro logic (all 6 speakers) mode? I listen in a normal sized living room in an apartment and I play volume loud but not overbearing loud that it would bother neighbors. Does Pro Logic (I have pro logic 1) actually change the way the instruments were meant to be heard when recorded?

    Hershon,
    Playing a two channel CD through dolby prologic WILL change the placement of instruments because the CD is probably not encoded in Dolby Stereo.

    Prologic works off a dominate center,. Only the instruments spread far left or right will emerge from those positions when decoded through prologic. Everything else will be steered toward the center speaker. If the positioning of the instruments lies half left, or half right(correct positioning) it will emerge from the center speaker on unencoded signals. The sound will also be muffled a bit, because the steering and processing occuring in a the decoder actually removes some of the high frequencies from unencoded material(this does not happen with encoded signals)

    It is best to follow this premise. If the CD was recorded for two channel, you should playback through two channels. If it was encoded in prologic, it should be played back in prologic.

    When you start mismatching the decoder process(i.e playing unencoded material though a decoder, and visa versa) you begin to run into all kinds of errors in frequency response, imaging, and dynamics to a degree. The less processing you do through your receiver(just what is required) the less degredation there is to the signal.
  • 04-12-2004, 11:41 AM
    hershon
    Thanks Terrence A few more CD questions for you
    Thanks for your very useful comments. A couple of additional questions for you though-
    1. Does the fact that a home theater system has great DVD sound mean that it will automatically have great CD sound? 2. Do regular CD players produce better sounds than listening to the same CD on a DVD player? Out of curiosity, I plugged my CD player into my DVD receiver and the CD I played sounded better when playing it through the DVD player of the receiver than the CD player. When I played the CD on the CD player for my normal system it sounded better and it has about 80% fewer watts! 3. For some reason, when I play the same CD through prologic rather than a normal 2 speaker subwoofer setup on my receiver it actually does sound better. Is this typical or not? Again any of your input is welcome. Any hometheater system box set ups you'd recommend listing for under $700 with great CD and DVD sound?



    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Sir Terrence the Terrible
    Hershon,
    Playing a two channel CD through dolby prologic WILL change the placement of instruments because the CD is probably no encoded in Dolby Stereo.

    Prologic works off a dominate center,. Only the instruments spread far left or right will emerge from those positions when decoded through prologic. Everything else will be steered toward the center speaker. If the positioning of the instruments lies half left, or half right(correct positioning) it will emerge from the center speaker on unencoded signals. The sound will also be muffled a bit, because the steering and processing occuring in a the decoder actually removes some of the high frequencies from unencoded material(this does not happen with encoded signals)

    It is best to follow this premise. If the CD was recorded for two channel, you should playback through two channels. If it was encoded in prologic, it should be played back in prologic.

    When you start mismatching the decoder process(i.e playing unencoded material though a decoder, and visa versa) you begin to run into all kinds of errors in frequency response, imaging, and dynamics to a degree. The less processing you do through your receiver(just what is required) the less degredation there is to the signal.

  • 04-12-2004, 01:31 PM
    Sir Terrence the Terrible
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by hershon
    Thanks for your very useful comments. A couple of additional questions for you though-
    1. Does the fact that a home theater system has great DVD sound mean that it will automatically have great CD sound? 2. Do regular CD players produce better sounds than listening to the same CD on a DVD player? Out of curiosity, I plugged my CD player into my DVD receiver and the CD I played sounded better when playing it through the DVD player of the receiver than the CD player. When I played the CD on the CD player for my normal system it sounded better and it has about 80% fewer watts! 3. For some reason, when I play the same CD through prologic rather than a normal 2 speaker subwoofer setup on my receiver it actually does sound better. Is this typical or not? Again any of your input is welcome. Any hometheater system box set ups you'd recommend listing for under $700 with great CD and DVD sound?

    Answer to:

    1. No. Sometimes it does have great sound, and sometimes a regular CD player will sound better. It all depends on the DAC.

    2. Mirror the same answer as 1. The quality of the DAC is what will make either sound good.

    3. What sounds good is based on the listener. What is accurate in this case would depend on how it is decoded. But if I were to guess, I would say that your L/R speakers are not full range, and the addition of the sub into the mix will make it sound more full. And the fact that you are not using a center speaker makes the sound not bunch in the middle like it would if you were using one.

    I personally cannot recommend a hometheater in a box. I just believe they make way too many compromises in all aspects of audio. At the $700 mark, it's WAY too many compromises.
    Maybe some of the other really cool dudes on here could recommend a HTIB that will fit your needs, and isn't a stinking audio snob like myself(just kiddin) I just have no experience with HTIB to give you a intelligent answer.
  • 04-12-2004, 02:09 PM
    hershon
    Sir Terrance what is DAC? What mixed components would you?
    What is DAC that you refer too and is this part of a systems specs? If you had $700 (assume everything is at list price no deductions) what brands & model numbers would you put together for a home theater system assuming you wanted to get this best sound for both CD's and DVD's? Your receiver can either be a DVD receiver or a regular receiver
    (if its a regular receiver you can exclude the DVD player for the $700 you have to play with). How do you know if a speaker is full range or not? Are they suppose to specify that? If not, what brands carry full range home theater speakers?

    You the man!