Post by mandel May 16, 2006 (11 of 14)
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cyril said:
I dont know exactly what gear you have, but normally the analog six channel inputs on most recievers/preamps do not go through any digital processing, thus do not get time or level adjusted. Therefore you must enter time delay and level corrections into your SACD player. However each manufacturer does things diffently, so it pays to read the manual..
Normally the time settings in the preamplifer/AVR are only applied to DD and DTS signals recieved via the spdif port.
Cyril
After reading this I played with the delay settings on my amp and discovered that they don't do anything when using the 6-channel input. My SACD player (Sony SCD-XE680) doesn't do delays either. My centre channel was only 1.1m from my listening position but the L,R,LS,RS were all at 1.4m and there was no way to move my centre channel further away. I've just moved the fronts a bit closer (10-15cmish), put on the RCO Live Dvorak 9th and the difference is amazing. Considerably more even soundstage across the whole 80 degree arc at the front. I'm practically drooling thinking what it would be like if I could get all the distances exactly right!
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Post by cyril May 16, 2006 (12 of 14)
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300mm equates roughly to 1ft, which equates to around 1mS of error. This is the typical minimum increment adjustment for rear's but a significant error for the centre.
Another option you may consider is to tell the SACD player that you have no centre, this will cause the player to add the centre channel info to both the LF,RF signals and create a phantom centre. This will get you around the inability to time align the physical centre speaker.
I personally dont like centre speakers, they have there place when trying to lock dialog to the screen for a wide positioning of listeners in a home cinema situation, however I have often found that a set of stereo fronts that have been setup for good imaging will do a superiour job with multichannel music than three descrete speakers. The number of recordings in 4:0 demonstrate how this is true, and how many recording engineers agree.
Regards
Cyril
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Post by terence May 17, 2006 (13 of 14)
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i'd like to thank sincerely all those above who replied to my original post. by combining your various bits of advice i have made significant progress and now have both pre-amp and marantz player set up with correct distances inserted.
a couple of remaining queries:
[1] i can't get subwoofer output when running Neo: 6 from stereo sources. i CAN get it when i select the "STEREO" setting, then choose "MUSIC" from the "EFFECTS" sub-menu. i wonder why?
[2] what is the difference between the Neo: 6 setting and the "stereo/effects" combination?
[3] is it EVER possible to get my sub to output something when playing a 5.0 or 4.0 programme from SACD or DVD-A? there are times when i feel i really need it.
any further words of wisdom much appreciated....
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terence said:
[3] is it EVER possible to get my sub to output something when playing a 5.0 or 4.0 programme from SACD or DVD-A? there are times when i feel i really need it.
This, I think depends on the crossover supplied with the subwoofer. I will get a subwoofer when I can crossover the output from my front (large) speakers to the subwoofer (reducing the range of low frequencies they are then called on to reproduce).
This for me demands a VERY high quality crossover as the stuff in front deserves to not be degraded.
Presently you should be able to set up the system as if with no subwoofer and large speakers, hooking the amps for the L and R speakers directly to the crossover so that it takes the Lows from those speakers. In other words treat the subwoofer as you would have 20 yrs ago in your stereo system
Then with an additional sub you could use the .1 of the multi-channel programming.
(This is relatively expensive and since my speakers only show the lack of a sub on the deepest organ music and I don't listen to that so frequently, I have other things to do with my money.) I just mention it as a possiblity for the well heeled!
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