Favorite Modes for SSP600 and SSP300 Owners

[moonlightdrive21]

What modes (e.g., Music Mode Natural, Dolby Pro Logic 2, THX Ultra II Movie, etc.) do you like to use when you are:

1) watching a regaular movie that has 5.1 channels?
2) watching a concert DVD?
3) playing a DVD Audio disc?

What have your experiences been with using the features listed below? Under what circumstances do you keep them on vs. off?

1) Re-Equalization
2) Timbre Matching
3) Adaptive Decorrelation
4) Advanced Surround Array(ASA)

Thanks!
Dave

[photoman]

What modes (e.g., Music Mode Natural, Dolby Pro Logic 2, THX Ultra II Movie, etc.) do you like to use when you are:

1) watching a regaular movie that has 5.1 channels?
2) watching a concert DVD?
3) playing a DVD Audio disc?

What have your experiences been with using the features listed below? Under what circumstances do you keep them on vs. off?

1) Re-Equalization
2) Timbre Matching
3) Adaptive Decorrelation
4) Advanced Surround Array(ASA)

Thanks!
Dave

For Music
CD - Balanced inputs bypass mode only
Analog Turn Table - 2CH Stereo only
DVD Audio - DTS stream seems to sound best 5 channels straight stream
SCAD - multichannel (analog inputs on SSP600) can't do anything here
Concert DVD - found that it varies depending on the source e.g Pink Floyd Plus DVD concert - excellent in 2CH horrible in 5 channel. Some don't sound bad in 5 channel e.g. Led Zeppelin DVD concert. Then again Zeppelin sounds good on a $59 transistor radio. :B

DVD Movies
DTS mode if the DVD has it - Sounds pretty dam good Digital Dolby otherwise. I don't use the other modes as I've discovered that it's just a variation of a different noise level. I haven't found one that I particularly like better then the other; I mainly use the choices on the disk; DTS being a better sound then DD.

[moonlightdrive21]

For Music
CD - Balanced inputs bypass mode only
Analog Turn Table - 2CH Stereo only
DVD Audio - DTS stream seems to sound best 5 channels straight stream
SCAD - multichannel (analog inputs on SSP600) can't do anything here
Concert DVD - found that it varies depending on the source e.g Pink Floyd Plus DVD concert - excellent in 2CH horrible in 5 channel. Some don't sound bad in 5 channel e.g. Led Zeppelin DVD concert. Then again Zeppelin sounds good on a $59 transistor radio. :B

DVD Movies
DTS mode if the DVD has it - Sounds pretty dam good Digital Dolby otherwise. I don't use the other modes as I've discovered that it's just a variation of a different noise level. I haven't found one that I particularly like better then the other; I mainly use the choices on the disk; DTS being a better sound then DD.

Great info! Thank you my friend!

I have an old Lexicon DC-1 SSP (technology is about 12 years old, but has 5.1) and when I play concert DVD's, I almost always find that 2 channel sounds best, even on recent DVD recordings that were recorded for multi channel.

My expectation was that my SSP 600 (coming any day now - can't wait) would change all that and that multichannel modes would achieve better results than 2 channel for many concert DVD's. So we'll see, but I would not be surprised if two channel still sounds best to me for many DVD concerts.

After all these years and advancements with multichannel processing, it's amazing how 2 channel still often wins out for best sound when it comes to music, even on DVD.

I just picked up "Led Zeppelin - How the West Was One" on DVD Audio, and am interested to hear how it will sound on the SSP600. I definitely will have to pick up that Floyd DVD concert you mentioned!

Thanks!
Dave

[photoman]

Congratulations - great unit; you'll enjoy it very much.

[RebelMan]

1. DTS (if available) followed by DD in "raw" bit streams, both with THX Ultra 2.
2. Currently not my thing.
3. 2CH 24bit/96KHz.

Re-Equalization, Timbre Matching and Adaptive Decorrelation are THX Ultra 2 post processing features that will apply whenever the THX mode is enabled. ASA is only possible with a 7.1 configuration.

[moonlightdrive21]

Photoman:

Do you turn on THX Ultra 2 when listening to 5.1 concert DVD's or DVD Audio?

Rebelman:

You mentioned that you listen to DVD Audio in 2CH 24bit/96KHz. But aren't DVD-Audio discs mixed and set up for multichannel playback? So wouldn't playing them back in two channel be "undoing" the intent of the format? I'm very new to DVD Audio, so please excuse me if this is a dumb question,

Thanks,
Dave

[RebelMan]

Many DVD-A (MLP encoded) discs come with both hirez (24bit/96KHz) two-channel and multi-channel tracks. There are some DTS encoded DVD-A discs that are generally limited to hirez multi-channel tracks only.