Is there something wrong with my receiver? (1 Viewer)

[GregBe]

I have an Onkyo 600 receiver and I noticed that when I switch over to stereo mode or 5 channel stereo mode, I get a much fuller sound than when I am in DPLII. I even saw an improvement over DTS/DD. I will give an example. I was watching The Two Towers in DTS, when the Ents are talking they obviously have very deep voices. Without changing anything on my dvd player, I switched my receiver to stereo mode, and their voices were much fuller and deeper. I am pretty sure its not my speakers, because my center channel is much superior to my mains, and it goes much deeper.
Do you think this a decoding flaw and I have a bad receiver, or could it be a power issue, where stereo has more headroom because it uses only 2 channels.

Greg

 

[John Garcia]

Yes, headroom is likely a primary factor, but I've found that PLII does not sound as full with most things. Generally, when watching a DVD that has a stereo track, my receiver will switch to PLII, but I noticed it often sounds better in stereo also. Not necessarily because of power, but because of something in the processing. PLII sounds OK, but is not always the best. 5ch stereo sounds better because all the channels are receiving the same thing, not matrixed sound in the rears.

Does anyone know if the Oknyo uses discrete amps for all channels or if the rears are IC channels? This is usually when a receiver's numbers drop significanly in power from 2ch to all channel.

 

[JackS]

Greg- The total mix is being sent to your fronts in two channel and rears in 5ch stereo at the expense of hearing all channels in a discreet mode. It may sound better at first until you realise the total lack of seperation your getting in these inappropiate settings.