I know my question may seem a bit off place, but it 's about home theatre anyway. So here it goes. I have a simple stereo system,however I am a big lover of special effects like explosions and gun fire, especially explosions. The thing is i can 't hear them so I end up with a bad experience both in games and dvd. Is there anything I can do? My stereo system has a surround option, but I don 't see real benefit in selecting it. Should I use pseudo surround effects of my DVD player or change the downmix option to Dolby Surround ?
Get a Subwoofer. You can crank it all the way to where you feel the explosions and maybe even the gun fire, then you could sit in your chair like the guy from the old school Maxell ads.
You can get a dedicated powered subwoofer that can accept high level or speaker level inputs.
You connect the speaker outputs of your stereo system to the subwoofer's speaker level inputs. From there you connect your regular speakers to the subwoofer.
I have a listening question. When listening to a cd that is not an SACD or DVD-A format should one listen to it in stereo or set the pro-logic mode to music so that I can get sound out of all of the speakers? Here is why I ask this, SACD and DVD-A are mixed for surround, so we are hearing what the engineering people had in mind, but when listening to a stereo cd in a sort of simulated surround sound that you get through pro-logic ll am I really hearing it the way it should be heard? I hope this makes sense, because I am new to surround sound, I am set up for 5.1 with a sub woofer, and am getting to know how to use it. So my question is, if one has a stereo mixed cd should they listen to it with just the front left and right speakers and the sub, or put it in all channel stereo or go the pro-logic ll route and listen to it in what I would think would be a simulated type surround sound?
Why are you using pro-logic? Set your receiver to auto-detect and let the receiver do the job of decoding the signal and just sit back and enjoy your music.
Thanks for the fast replys. As to the question of why am I using Pro-Logic , I thought that the setting i should use when trying to get surround sound from a stereo recording. Like I said i am new to suround. Berny, yes I do have 5.1 analog inputs, I had my system installed professionaly.I am still learning the in and outs, that was why I asked the question on whether I should play a stereo recording through all of the speakers. As far as the auto-detect, how does it work? If you say it will decode the signal would it not be decoding the stereo signal? And if so how would it then be in surround? Please excuse my ignorance on the subject, any help is appreciated.
Robert, For example, if you're watching a 2-channel cd/TV/DVD source, you'll still want to use DolbyPL2 if you wish to convert it into 5.1.
I think what berny was suggesting that there arent really any situations where you would want to use the 'standard' PL mode if you own a 5.1 receiver.
As for the...."should I listen to music in 2channel or surround?" question.......That's entirely up to you and how your system is setup.
For me because I have large fronts, I prefer 2channel if Im cranking it, and either 7channel surround or PL2 if I have company and the music is playing as background music. Someone else might feel entirely differently because it's all personal preference.
Thank you Paul, That explains it for me, I am still a little puzzled though about what exactly Dolby PL2 does to convert 2 channel to surround. I mean how close is it to listening to music that was actually mixed for surround? Like SACD or DVD-A. Also when you say you use either 7 channel (which would be 5 channel for me) or PL2 , what is the difference? When you say 7 channel surround do you mean you set your reciever to All Channel Stereo? Or is there an actual mode for what will be 5 channel surround for me?
yes, Many receivers have a 5/7 channel stereo mode that is separate from PL surround. In that mode, all the speakers work equally. At least that's the way it sounds to me. The new receivers do a pretty good job simulating 5.1 surround, and I suspect that many coudnt tell the difference from 5.1 simulated compared to a 5.1 discrete recording.
The 5.1discrete recordings are better, and once you listen to enough, you'll hear the difference, but it isnt a big difference. Todays receivers do a very good job processing the sound.