Settings Help. Sorround when in movies. But rears on with music?

[sdnatlst]

This is something ive never been able to get my head around.

I want my rear speakers to be in sorround mode obviously when im watching a DVD, but when im listening to the amp in CD mode i want the rears to be on all the time playing the music along with the fronts.

How do i go about wiring/setting it up for this...as if i put the speakers into the rear sorround sockets, i only get sound when in a DVD movie, not on the CD function.

Sony 520 amp.

 

[ash08]

Your CD mode is probably 2 channel stereo hence the sound from your front 2 speakers and not the rears. Your 5.1 Digital mode for DVD's decodes and outputs to all 5 channels plus your sub.

Someone with the amp may have a better solution but you probably have a DSP mode that will output the 2 channel stereo to the rears as well so have a look through your DSP modes. I had a 5.1 stereo option and just routed the bass through the fronts and turned the centre off

Good Luck.

 

[ash08]

This is only because you asked not because its the way to go: I forgot to say you can, with a bit of elaborate wiring, achieve the same effect but its a hassle and you should be able to get the result you want without doing this...Wiring your rears into the same output as the fronts will have the desired result (2 channel stereo through front and rears), however, you will have to put them back into the rear output for DVD's. You may even be able to piggyback the rear speakers into the front output along with your fronts speakers.

I would recommend against doing this however as you should have the necessary options on your amp.

 

[Andy98765]

From a stereo source like CD players you should be able to select Dolby pro Logic II which will fill all your speakers, not perfect but overcomes messing about with wiring and as you want the sound messed up by coming out of 4 speakers why not them all.

 

[sdnatlst]

Ok,
i do sort of understand sound image's, and also know alot about car audio where as you should only have 1 set of components in the front, as rears will mess up the image.

but also ive seen on here that alot of people have them coming out of the rears too, as they like to "match" the rears to the front for the best quality.

so i was just wondering, thats all.!

 

[ash08]

Hi sdnatlst,
Andy is right. 2 Channel stereo will sound better coming from 2 well positioned front speakers and you may notice that 4 speakers sounds a bit overcrowded (if that makes sense?) or just distorted. That said, I occasionally used 4 speakers when optimum sound quality wasn't a real issue, when we had lots of guests for example, it was quite a big room.

When you say "match the rears" to the front do you mean in a properly decoded 5.1 system or with 2 channel stereo? Taking time to match the rears for 5.1 (or 6-7.1) movie audio will likely give you a better sound as altering speaker distance/height (plus configuration settings on your amp) will ensure that the decoded rear channel sound will hit your ears at the preceise moment that it's supposed too - you'll have a sweet spot.

2 channel stereo does not need a rear channel for optimum sound quality and adding rears to 2 channel will not improve the sound or give you a sweet spot. I'm not an expert so maybe someone can add a bit more info on that? As I said, I occasionally used it when optimum quality wasn’t an issue.

Good Luck

 

[Marky1973]

On the Sony 820 by pressing the A.F.D button to select ESURROUND and then choosing DTS Neo 6 the 2 channel sound is output in some sort of virtual surround - which does a reasonable job of filling the room, and I quite like it - not necessarily the purist sound, but not appalling.

The other thing you can do is add another set of speakers as "B" - I have my big stereo floor standers connected to B and just switch to them if I want to listen to something in dcent old standard stereo

NOt sure if the 520 has the same features in this respect as the 820, but might be worth a play with the ESURROUND settings if you have them