[Gary Eickmeier]

Super maddening, trying to calibrate your system by referring to the manual
that came with the receiver. Mine has 5 standards, such as Dolby Pro Logic,
DPL Movie, Music, Neo 6 Cinema, Music. Then there are 6 Advanced Surround
modes, such as Adv Movie, Adv Music, 6-Stereo, etc. But they don't tell you
what each mode does to the signal, they give colorful descriptions such as
"especially suited to movie sources" or "especially suited to music
sources."

I also couldn't tell which mode I was in when seated in my listening room,
becausse all electronics are in the editing room right next door, and the
remote does not tell you what you are in. So I set up a video camera on the
receiver, laid a line to the listening room with a set that can show me the
face of the receiver as I switch.

Still confusing, and you never know which mode is doing what you want to the
signal. Totally subjective. So you listen to a good stereo recording and
switch away. Some modes put the sound way up front, some spread it out
nicely and give some surround effect, such as audience applause.

I settled on one that puts a lot of surround in the playback situation
without stretching it too wide (like the Game mode) and keeping a good
central image. I can now get imaging from wall to wall, and with some pretty
good surround effects, especially with my own 3 spaced omni recordings.

In my latest, the director was announcing each group standing at the right
front corner of the room, further right than the right microphone. When I
play it back, he images in the right front corner of my room, thanks partly
to the surround effect "assisting" the right channel to go slightly wider
than if it were direct 2 channel. The music group is spookily spread all
across the front of the room in a deep, continuous imaging that runs
smoothly from left to right wall of my room, just as it was positioned in
the actual room. Audience applause is all around and very real.

Still confusing, because I don't know if this is just me adjusting my
surround to what I want, rather than some brilliant engineering being
decoded properly. Oh well, I'm having fun.

Gary Eickmeier

[Kele]

On Jul 16, 12:18=A0pm, "Gary Eickmeier"
wrote:
Still confusing...
Gary Eickmeier

Sounds like we have the same preamp. I can pick between DD, DTS,
Stereo categories and cycle through different modes within
categories. The preamp will initially set to the appropriate category
last used. If last used was DD Music and it senses a DD signal, it
will auto switch to DD and DD Music as that was the last DD sub-mode
used. If it does not sense surround channel information, it will go
to Stereo, of which there are several sub-choices, ie: Bypass, 5
Channel, etc. Fifteen+ years with previous preamp, this new feature
packed one is taking some getting used to. I usually don't want
electronics thinking for me, but I am getting used to this preamp's
auto business and mostly appreciate it.

I am using a learning remote (the one from my old preamp). I can
assign a separate button for DD, DTS, and Stereo categories. The
preamp will do its auto thing, but I can press the stereo button and
it will switch to stereo category, last used Stereo mode. I can do
this blind without seeing the preamp face panel. If I left it Stereo
Bypass and press the remote's assigned Stereo button, I know it's
going to Stereo Bypass. It would be brain taxing to then try to know
without seeing which sub-mode I can cycle through without seeing the
face panel. But maybe if your preamp allows you to directly access
modes without cycling through, you could use a learning remote and
assign a specific button for each... then you would only need remember
which button sets to what mode.

Kele

[Gary Eickmeier]

Kele wrote:
On Jul 16, 12:18 pm, "Gary Eickmeier"
wrote:
Still confusing...
Gary Eickmeier

Sounds like we have the same preamp. I can pick between DD, DTS,
Stereo categories and cycle through different modes within
categories. The preamp will initially set to the appropriate category
last used. If last used was DD Music and it senses a DD signal, it
will auto switch to DD and DD Music as that was the last DD sub-mode
used. If it does not sense surround channel information, it will go
to Stereo, of which there are several sub-choices, ie: Bypass, 5
Channel, etc. Fifteen+ years with previous preamp, this new feature
packed one is taking some getting used to. I usually don't want
electronics thinking for me, but I am getting used to this preamp's
auto business and mostly appreciate it.

I am using a learning remote (the one from my old preamp). I can
assign a separate button for DD, DTS, and Stereo categories. The
preamp will do its auto thing, but I can press the stereo button and
it will switch to stereo category, last used Stereo mode. I can do
this blind without seeing the preamp face panel. If I left it Stereo
Bypass and press the remote's assigned Stereo button, I know it's
going to Stereo Bypass. It would be brain taxing to then try to know
without seeing which sub-mode I can cycle through without seeing the
face panel. But maybe if your preamp allows you to directly access
modes without cycling through, you could use a learning remote and
assign a specific button for each... then you would only need remember
which button sets to what mode.

Kele

I want to always listen in surround, even with 2-channel sources, but I
object to artificial processing of the signal to sound like some cathedral,
night club, train station, or whatever. I don't think my receiver is doing
any of that, but it still has a lot of surround processing modes that it is
not clear what it is doing to the signal, which just bugs me. Just listen
and choose, they say. Get a few test records with some pure signals of some
sort and listen to what the modes do to it. I am currently waiting for
Surround Spectacular from Delos and John Eargle. It has example Dolby
Surround encoded music, along with some test tracks that are supposed to
decode in surround. I thought I already had that disc, but can't find it.

I'm glad I am discovering more about all these modes that I hadn't paid much
attention to before, but it is still confusing.

To the scientists out there - would some types of scopes tell you what the
processor is doing to the signal? I guess all the measurement equipment in
the world doesn't matter that much anyway, because it ends up being
subjective to you. So what would David Greisinger do?

Gary Eickmeier

[Andrew Barss[_2_]]

Gary Eickmeier wrote:
: Super maddening, trying to calibrate your system by referring to the manual
: that came with the receiver. Mine has 5 standards, such as Dolby Pro Logic,
: DPL Movie, Music, Neo 6 Cinema, Music. Then there are 6 Advanced Surround
: modes, such as Adv Movie, Adv Music, 6-Stereo, etc. But they don't tell you
: what each mode does to the signal, they give colorful descriptions such as
: "especially suited to movie sources" or "especially suited to music
: sources."

I sympathize. I recently moved everything in my living room, and
disconnected and reconnected all the electronics. I have a Squeezebox
Classic, which has analog and digital-optical outputs. I wanted to
take advantage of the DAC in the Squeezebox, so connected it to my
receiver with analog cables, and discovered that even analog inputs are
usually converted to digital and then re-analogized. The manual is really
unclear on what happens to analog signals, and whether e.g., the RCA jacks
for the tape inoput and the ones for the game imput go through the same or
different processing routes.

Very frustrating. (The receover is an Onkyo TX-SR706, if anyone has the
answer, or a recommendation on which inoput to use to not get the
SB outputs reprocessed).

-- Andy Barss