Home Theater Audio Tweaking How-To

[hunglikethor]

I just got my 5.1 home theater system installed and tuned up on Friday:

2 B&W 803Ds (Front)
1 B&W HTM2D (Center)
1 REL B1 (Powered Subwoofer)
2 B&W DS8S (Rear Surround)
1 Rotel RMB-1095 5x200W Amplifer
1 RKF-100 Cooling Fan (for RMB-1095)
1 RSP-1098 Surround Sound Processor

I have a lot of "old" music (i.e. Floyd, Doors, Who, etc) on CD that were not recorded/mastered with more modern equipment. I noticed that the RSP-1098 has some additional programmable surround settings (Music 1-4) which I presume could be user defined surround settings. Is it worth playing around with the non-tuned settings in an attempt to achieve more optimal performance for these older recordings? If so, are there some good HOW-TO books/papers/web sites that deal with tuning the Rotel RSP-1098 in concert with B&W speakers?

Thanks in advance!

[Burke Strickland]

You have assembled a really nice system which should do a fine job of recreating the musical experience reasonably close to what the artists intended. IMO, if the selection was recorded in 2 channel stereo, it should be played back that way. Going for an "enveloping" sound may seem fun and even rewarding at first, but it can get rather tiring after a while, and is rarely totally convincing.

Other than Dolby ProLogic II and IIx and Logic 7 in some limited situations, I have rarely heard any synthetic surround modes ("concert hall", "jazz club", "stadium", "Music 1" et al) built into receivers or pre/pros that were worth wasting very much time on rather than simply enjoying stereo music the way it was recorded. That includes these kinds of modes built into a wide range of gear from basic receivers to some fairly high end gear such as my own latest pre/pro and a fair number of others I have owned in the past, demoed at dealers or listened to in other enthusiasts' homes.

If the music disc was engineered for surround, then the correct surround mode should be engaged (DTS, DD or 5.1 channel bypass for SACD and DVD-Audio) -- unless the engineers played cute tricks with placement of the instruments, such as horns blaring out of the back channels even though video of the performance shows the horn players up front on stage with everyone else, in which case a two channel down-mix still might sound more like a live performance.

On the other hand, some people swear by these additional processing modes as the means to musical Nirvana, in which case, I'm glad they are enjoying them. But I think they may be listening to their equipment rather than to the music. However, as long as it doesn't become an addiction, these various modes can be fun to tinker with as an alternative to doing yard work or other home maintenance. :>)

That's probably not quite the answer you were looking for, but it is my honest opinion based on years of playing a lot of stereo and surround selections through a lot of different systems. It is natural to think we ought to be using all of our channels all the time, especially given how expensive it is to get a really good surround system set up but, kind of like the subwoofer only being called upon when there is really very deep bass content, IMO, the surrounds should only be engaged when there is a real reason in the source material for them to come into play.

Enjoy your nice system!

Burke

[Briz vegas]

Gees, I never knew that Thor went to the gallows. bummer

Nice system by the way !!!

[bigburner]

Gees, I never knew that Thor went to the gallows.

I think he was just hanging around sleazy wine bars.

By the way, I agree with Burke. If the music was recorded in 2 channel stereo, it should be played back that way.

Nigel.

PS. And welcome to the HTGuide Forum!