[Justin Ward]

My setup is basically entry level(except the subwoofer I'd say).
Pioneer VSX-D510
Paradigm Titans, Atoms and CC170
Adire Audio Tempest Ported 194L subwoofer

I was experimenting with DSP modes on my receiver tonight. Before tonight I thought they were all very fake sounding and unconvincing. However, tonight I was playing the songs "Leila" and "Tears of Heaven" by Eric Clapton from the Unplugged albun. I used the concert hall mode and it was amazing. I couldn't believe how much the 5.1 DSP improved on the sound of the standard stereo playback. It just sounded much more believeable and lively.

Do you guys find DSP modes in general are poor quality or are they worthwhile?

[Donnie Eldridge]

When I first started out in HT, I thought they were the coolist thing. But, I found that most weren't very good or results depended very much on the material being used. Now I don't even bother with them.

[JimC_A]

I must still be too newbie to not like them. I have the Yamaha 1300 and the dsp's on it are great. Spectacle is my favorite.

[Jed M]

I find DSP's to be junk, but it all depends on what it sounds like to you. I used to listen to them back in the late 80's but I chalk that up to not knowing any better. They all have an obnoxious echo to them, IMO. My 950 doesn't have any and I am thankful for that. In fact, they gave us the choice if we wanted them or not and the majority (myself included) voted not to have them.

[Jason GT]

I used to have the boom/sizzle setup on my minisystem when I bought it ... oh 10 years ago :b - there was like a 5 band EQ and that was one of the half-dozen odd presets you could choose from (I never really bothered with the others).

Then one day, I just turned it off and decided that going flat just sounded better (mind you, this minisystem speced speakers at something like 50 hz -20 khz, +3/-10 or something ridiculous like that).

As for DSP modes, I initially kinda liked listening to stereo music with Logic7, and, depending on the type of music, sometimes still do. But I've found that as my slant towards music increases, when I listen critically it's 2ch all the way - something about Logic7/DPL II (maybe the center channel) destroys the stereo image.

I do like the reverb that L7 puts on the surrounds, so maybe I should experiment more with a 4.1 setup on L7.

Aside from that, I've not bothered with DSP modes like hall or church or club or stadium or broom closet or whatever. They usually sound neat at first but lose something along the way.

Personally, if you like DSP, by all means, use it -- don't let us influence you. After all, they're your ears, and you're supposed to please yourself -- not us!

[MatthewJ S]

I will comment that I believe that many mnfgs don't put much effort into DSP quality, it's like they do it to say "yeah, we got concert hall too...", but we should remind ourselves that there are some companies that do it well and I'll use Yamaha as the prime example....Many moons ago Yammie engineers discovered that Americans were using speakers A & B TO drive 2 sets of speakers in the same room whereas in Japan the A/b SWITCH was designed for two rooms. The little engineers said that this was akin to haveing a band's clones performing simultaniously at the rear of a venue...noise cancellation, destruction of soundstaging and image, phase problems ,masking ,etc....However, these guys realized that the typical american room was likely much larger and made of more absorbtive materials (less concrete, more wood), and was less likely to share proximity with neighbors....these situations are not the case in a typical Japanese home where personal space is at a premium....this may also explain some differances in Japanese speaker design.....So the Japanese engineers said "what if we used the extra pair of speakers to emulate the reflective patterns (acoustic signature, if you will ) of an existing, popular venue where people enjoy music?"....they went out and miked dozens of venues all over the world with a specially designed "single-field quad mike" and "Digital Soundfield Processing" was born ...they even copywrighted that phrase, unfortunately, they didn't immediately crate a logo ,nor did they copywright the initials DSP....hence "Digital Signal Processing" came along with other mnfgrs putting "dsp's" into their rcvrs....."yeah ,George, that new Yammie has grabbed some great reviews, add some echo and reverb on a chip and slap the initials dsp on our new box..." Now , there are many companies that have recently begun to do a great job with their dsp processing and algorythms, and if you take the time to initialize their parameters and set-up the room, you may find yourself surprised from time to time.....