benefits/drawbacks of using surround effects with music

[ebh]

hi folks,

i recently received a 340cSE to put put between my 170SEs and am trying to get an idea of its uses outside of movies. Right now i'm only running 3.1--the 340 center, 170 l/r and a UFW-10 as my sub. I have an xr55 receiver.

can anyone explain what these surround effects do to the input source and what benefits or drawbacks i'll get from playing music (FLAC files streamed thru a squeezebox series 2) through just the l/r vs. turning on pro logic II and also using the center?

from listening it feels like adding the center into the mix adds some warmth and also changes the bass response by making the bass a bit punchier and a bit more forward. Overall the pro logic II has a richer sound. just going with the l/r seems more austere but also cleaner in some ways. i'm still not sure which i prefer but before i settle on something i'd like to get an idea of what other people use and what the surround effect is actually doing.

thanks.

[bikeman]

can anyone explain what these surround effects do to the input source and what benefits or drawbacks i'll get from playing music (FLAC files streamed thru a squeezebox series 2) through just the l/r vs. turning on pro logic II and also using the center?

It's a matter of personal perference. Most of us that have expressed an opinion on this prefer two channel for music vs. pro logic II. You can visit Dolby's site to get the details on pro-logic. By the way, NICE set-up!

David

[drewface]

i have a yamaha receiver, and i like to run my music in 7-channel stereo, assuming i have more than the left/right mains hooked up at the time. this takes advantage of all the speakers while preserving the left-right separation that stereo provides. center channels get a mix of both sides. this, in my opinion, gives a more enveloping experience because the sound is then coming from all angles, instead of just the front.

[ebh]

thanks for the replies--i've notice some albums sound pretty good with the PLII, like Radiohead's Kid A, which i was listening to when i first posted, but others, like U2s Joshua Tree, sounded quite bad. so i guess it's a matter of opinion not just to using it or not, but even perhaps depending on the original source material.

[Grayson73]

On my SA-XR50, DTS Neo:6 sounds better than PLII

[Lou-the-dog]

At first I thought the surround processing was kinda cool but after a while I grew tired of it. To me it caused a sort of "auditory confusion". I suppose the sweet spot using the processing is different than the sweet spot for two channel. It didn't take too long before strictly unprocessed two channel became my preference. To each his/her own tho...listen to what turns you on and don't let other's preferences cloud your own.

Randy

[ganto]

from listening it feels like adding the center into the mix adds some warmth and also changes the bass response by making the bass a bit punchier and a bit more forward. Overall the pro logic II has a richer sound. just going with the l/r seems more austere but also cleaner in some ways. i'm still not sure which i prefer but before i settle on something i'd like to get an idea of what other people use and what the surround effect is actually doing.

I have a HK receiver and for some material I like listening to Logic7's music surround mode. It does boost the bass a bit but not to a point where it sounds out of place. imo typically if it's not too 'busy' of a recording (or) with vocals centered in the middle then it's a good candidate for seeing if I like the surround mode better than stereo. Depends on mood really

I find that I dont use all channel stereo for listening much.