Alison Krauss+Union Station Live -- No Center channel??? (1 Viewer)

[Skip Hammerman]

Just received the SACD from Amazon. Playing through Denon 2900 and I am not getting any sound through Center channel playing through the 5.1 analog input. Other multichannel discs (both SACD and DVD-A) play ok.

Any ideas???

 

[PaulDA]

There is no hard and fast rule about m/c recordings and how many channels the recording engineers actually use. It can vary from 3 to 5.1 and sometimes even 6.0 (certain Chesky recordings I've read about, though not listened to). I have the same disc, which I find to be among the best recorded music I've ever heard, and I can confirm that very little, a negligible amount, really, comes out of the centre channel. I did experiment with setting the centre to OFF on my player with this disc and, strangely enough, the sound was not as nice, nor as loud--volume level was constant on my receiver and no other settings were changed. Don't know what that meant, but I turned the centre back on, as I liked the overall sound a lot better, even if nothing is coming out of the centre.

My two cents.

 

[Patrick_L]

that makes absolutely no sense unless turning the center channel off on your receiver is somehow adjusting the levels of your other speakers, which i find a bit strange.

 

[PaulDA]

Actually, I turned the centre off in the player, not the receiver, and you're right, it made no sense to me. However, the volume output effect was real (measured roughly 3 dB on my spl meter). Normally I like to know why things occur, but in this case, I was too tired to investigate further, so I just sat back and listened to Alison play and sing.

 

[Patrick_L]

That's certainly strange. I think i'll pick it up this weekend. Sounds like it is still highly regarded despite the "missing" center channel info.

 

[Brian L]

A few points:

1. Some players have been reported to NOT redirect the center to the L/R mains if Center is set to Off in the player. That could account for what Paul is hearing (or NOT hearing). You would want to run some DVD-A or SACD test tones with the player in that configuration to know for sure.

2. And as Paul said, there is NO standard for how MC recording are mixed. One should not assume anything is wrong if there is no (or very low) center channel content. 9.9 times out of 10, its mixed that way.

BGL

 

[PaulDA]

Where would I get some SACD or DVD-A test tones? I'm most curious now to see if this is the reason (not that it matters, but I like to know why things are the way they are).

 

[Brian L]

The Chesky Ultimate DVD-A has a very good series of tests, plus some MC music in both 4.0 (basically Quad) and 6.0 (using the center and surrounds for height channel...interesting, but useless for most users).

I think some of the Telarc DVD-A's may also have some test tones.

Kevin C. Brown has suggested a SACD test disc who's name escapes me at the moment. I have it hear somewhere....I'll post again if I can dig it out.

BGL