DPLIIx Settings and Room Sizes - Just Checking!

[Chris CRt]

Hello!

I was just curious to see what you all are doing in the setup menu for Dolby Pro Logic IIx and what size your room might be. I've been playing with the settings for a little bit now and am starting to find how each works (good and bad) with the signal.

I can definitely say I do not like Panorama. I heard the center channel voices bleed into the surrounds, and it sounded awful. There's no degree on what you can set it to other than on and off. I choose off!

Now, the fun part is the center channel width and the dimension settings. The center channel definitely lost it's focus for me in my 14 x 16 x 8-9 room around the 3 mark. It no longer sounded clean and clear, but rather a bit muddy. I am at the 2 mark and find it pretty good, although I might scale it back to 1.

The Dimension setting, yeah, that's one I have no clue about. I know it says you can move the surround to the front or the back of the room, however, it doesn't state which way it goes when it's positive or negative. I'm guessing that negative brings it forward and positive brings it back. I'm also guessing this is for theaters with multiple row seating with one set of side surrounds, right? I mean if you're by yourself, and you set the room up for yourself (okay, wife too, but on the same row!) it technically should be at 0. If you have friends over, then a shift to the middle of the two rows would be appropriate, correct? Can anyone shed some light on this?

Moving right along, I've never understood the reverb level, but played with it tonight. I can safely say that wet sucks! Dry is, well, kind of there, but kind of blah. 1 to 2 seems right for me and my room, but am I defeating the purpose of what I did to my room (soundproofing, absorption/defusion) by using reverb? 8O

And my last question, what's the difference between Bass Frequency in the Tone Controls and the crossover frequency in the setup? If I have 80-Hz THX set in setup, why would I want to change the bass frequency in tones? I should keep it at 80 there too, right? I do like the treble controls. Right now it's at 6 kHz and have definitely noticed a difference. I'm wondering if this alone is the cause of the more smooth sound I'm hearing now after the upgrade. I'll play with the 8kHz setting to see if I like it. According to Parasounds updated manual, "You may prefer this setting." :B

Anyway, I'd like to hear about your trials and errors with the DPLIIx settings.

Thanks!

[Peter Nielsen]

what's the difference between Bass Frequency in the Tone Controls and the crossover frequency in the setup?

The Crossover frequency lets you set the frequency where the signal is "split" between the subwoofer and other speakers. E.g. a 80Hz crossover means that frequencies below 80Hz go to the subwoofer and frequencies above 80Hz go to the other speakers.

The Bass Frequency, on the other hand, controls how your bass control works. Thus, if your Bass level is at 0dB, this setting has no effect. The frequency setting works very much like the frequency setting on a parametric equalizer. Look at the frequency curves on page 11 of the manual supplement. It illustrates how the bass control works with the different settings. It's really much easier to understand how this works when playing with the treble. If you select 6kHz, you will notice that increasing treble also increases quite a bit of the high mid-range. At 10kHz, you will notice that really only the treble is increased.

If I have 80-Hz THX set in setup, why would I want to change the bass frequency in tones?

If you have 80Hz set, it means that you know all your "SMALL" speakers go down to 80Hz. If they go lower than that, then you might want to decrease the crossover frequency or vice versa. (Use the +/-3dB linearity specification of the speaker when determining this, or better yet, use a spectrum analyzer).

The bass control frequency, on the other hand, is pure personal taste, and will also vary depending on the material you're listening to. If you have a recording that is lacking in bass all the way down from ~150Hz, you will probably want to set the frequency to 110Hz...

As for the crossover, I wish Parasound would let us define the crossover frequency separately for each speaker group. (Item 1.1 on the official wish list).

Peter

[Q-Man]

As for the crossover, I wish Parasound would let us define the crossover frequency separately for each speaker group. (Item 1.1 on the official wish list).

Peter[/QUOTE]


I agree with Peter, this should have been included is this last update. What do you people do that have small center channel speakers? Your smallest speaker is going to control your crossover setting. What a waste of your other full range speakers. I'm luckly my center is the same speaker as my mains and surrounds. Parasound is way behind the times and has to wake-up get moving.

I'm about 90% sure that I'm going to buy a C2, but only for two reasons. One is the aux. channels 9 & 10 so I can have front effect speakers. The second reason is because most of you think this processor sounds good, and Brent keeps saying that it sounds better then Anthem. I hope your all right about the sound quality, because this piece is outdated.

[Peter Nielsen]

What do you people do that have small center channel speakers?

It is a problem. My speakers are different and go down to:

Mains: 25Hz (+/- 3dB)
Center: 80Hz (+/- 4dB)
Surrounds: 34Hz (+/- 3dB)
Rears: 80Hz (+/- 3dB)
Sub: 18Hz (+/- 3dB)

Indeed, having the subwoofer set to 80Hz is a terrible waste.

It would already improve a lot if SMALL speakers were "hardcoded" to 80Hz and the crossover setting would apply to speakers set to LARGE. (This is what I originally tought would be the case when they now allow the crossover to go down to 20Hz...)

Peter