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Best option for 2 channel recordings with Surround Sound

post #1 of 5
3/5/09 at 11:31am
Thread Starter 
So I'm a bit new to the surround sound Home theater game and am trying to keep up with the wealth of knowledge and now have a 5.1 set up which sounds great w/ DVD's but to be honest when listening to music it sounds better at least it seems w/ just my front right and left speakers w/ sub and no- surround.

Is this just because they are 2 channel recordings , or am I just doing something wrong w/ the settings.

When I turn on the Dolby Digital setting the surrounds just sound really muffled and lower the volume of the other speakers alot and when I turn that off and turn on DSP mode it's a bit better but they still aren't sounding I guess as crisp as I thought or as they do when watching movies.

For listening to music I guess I was hoping for kind of an envelopment effect , where I kind of hear the music all around me, like a sphere of music goodness.



Please forgive my ignorance and any help is greatly appreciated it just seems a waste to have the surround speakers and only get use out of them for movies.
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post #2 of 5
3/5/09 at 1:12pm

Re: Best option for 2 channel recordings with Surround Sound

You are not the only one who prefers the sound of the left/right/sub over 5.1 when it comes to music. I won't listen to music in 5.1 . To me it sounds much more natural in 2.1 than 5.1 . I do have to ask though. Did you set your speaker levels with an spl meter? Not having the right balance could be some of your problem as far as the 5.1 for music goes.
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post #3 of 5
3/5/09 at 5:41pm
Thread Starter 

Re: Best option for 2 channel recordings with Surround Sound

Thanks, that's good to hear actually so I know I'm not crazy.

I have read that a meter would help and I haven't done that yet. I just net flixed the avia dvd that's supposed to help too so I'll see how that goes, but yeah over all it just seems clearer in the 2.1 and the settings seem fine in surround when I play tv/ DVD.
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post #4 of 5
3/5/09 at 6:19pm

Re: Best option for 2 channel recordings with Surround Sound

If you want to hear music in 5.1 then rent a good concert dvd that was mixed in discreet 5.1 like The Eagles Hell Freezes Over and Farewell Tour dvd's. There are many other fine concert dvd's. My personal favorite is Boz Skaggs Greatest Hits. Also, pretty much all DVD-Audio discs also have a discreet DD or DTS 5.1 surround mix that can be played on regular dvd players. There are also a few DTS 5.1 music discs.

In short, most often it's best to listen to music the way it was mixed. If it's 2 channel then it probably sounds best in stereo. Dolby ProLogic and DTS Neo:6 do a fine job of faking it but it's just not the same as a real 5.1 mix.
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post #5 of 5
3/5/09 at 11:53pm

Re: Best option for 2 channel recordings with Surround Sound

Quote:
.....Dolby ProLogic and DTS Neo:6 do a fine job of faking it but it's just not the same as a real 5.1 mix.
You've got that right!

Most other DSP modes add varying types of reverb and ambience to the front channels' output, hence the "hazy" sound emanating from the rear channels.

As far as true surround music goes i.e. made from the original multitracks.......I love multichannel music and am one of those stupid people that bought a player capable of playing back hi-res surround music (Pioneer DV-656A) and a bunch of surround software.......then the bottom fell out of the surround music market around 2005. Among other things bad marketing, the iPod, no playback standards for dvd-audio, too many tired "classic" albums and not enough new material helped kill off sacd and dvd-audio.

Here's some discs (dvd-a and dvd-v) that should still be available and have great mixes along with DD or DTS tracks for regular dvd players:

* Beatles' Love - btw even in stereo the sound quality is excellent, since these mash-ups were sourced from the original master tapes. Most songs sound like they were recorded yesterday.

* BT's This Binary Universe - cool computer graphic videos accompany these long downtempo/glitch/jazz/classical music tracks.

* Peter Gabriel's Play dvd - some of the surround mixes are very different from the original stereo versions and I mean the music *itself* has been altered, so some fans may not like those particular tracks.

* Talking Heads - eight of their albums were remixed into surround. I bought my CD+dvd copy from Amazon in the U.K. to avoid the DualDisc (bleh) versions sold here.

DTS Inc. released a bunch of albums originally recorded in quad* on their proprietary DTS-CD format but IIRC most are out of print. I would check out used CD stores and used retail outlets for them. They sound great IMO since they use a 1200kbps data rate which on many systems will sound basically like a CD.

* a great site to read about and discuss the first surround music format, quadraphonic ---> QuadraphonicQuad Home
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