Question on 5.1 EX (1 Viewer)

[scott_tinari]

I have a Pioneer Eilte 35 tx reciever that does do 5.1 ex and 7.1 but with an external amp. I dont have the external amp I only have the 5.1 setup with energy take 5 speakers. My question is if I put the Pioneer Elite in the 5.1 EX mode on the reciever and play a DVD with 5.1 EX and without a back surround speaker will the dvd sound better or just keep it in regular 5.1 mode.

 

[Shade Watson]

I have no experience with the receiver you have. However, it would seem to me that you are telling your machine that you have an external amp playing the rear center speaker(s) when you switch to 5.1 EX mode. This would mean that the receiver is extracting the rear center channel from the rear L/R channels and sending them to the rear center pre/outs.
Therefore, you would lose all of the sound intended for the rear center channel when you do this. If you don't have any rear speakers and amps hooked up to your system, you should not use the 5.1 EX mode.