One of the first mistakes new owners of surround sound systems make is playing around with the audio setup and not knowing what they are adjusting. This happens every time someone gets a new toy, it’s almost human nature, to tweak something, even if you do not know what you are doing. I did the same. This articles will explain how to setup your new surround sound audio settings. A quick note, before you make any adjustments, make sure to note what the original settings were on your system, so that you may be able to return to the manufactures default.
Welcome to your new surround sound system, it has lots of setting available to it, it may or may not have come with speakers and it has lots of interesting labels on it to tell you the formats it supports and you have no idea what it all means. Do not worry, you’ll get used to it soon enough.
Settings.
First a quick note: This article is going to be referring to generalizations, because different manufactures call their features by different names, so refer to your manual to find your manufactures equivalent to the feature described.
Independent speaker volume adjustment. This adjustment allows you to make fine tuning adjustments to each speaker independent from one another.
Adjustments are normally made in decibels (db) with a positive or negative number to reduce or increase volume across one or more speakers. This feature gets abused by many new owners of surround sound systems, most people will crank up the surrounds so that they get the full surround experience. The rear surround speakers are where the special effects are played. What listeners are actually doing when they crank up the rear speakers is distorting how the surround is played. This is not how the movie is supposed to sound, directors already optimize how the surround is supposed to be played, they want their viewers to be amazed by the realism of the movie. When you crank up the rear speakers, you are taking the sound out of context.
How to adjust. This one is simple, keep all the volumes the same. If you have to make an adjustment of any kind because of speaker weakness, adjust it to 1 db (decibels) above the front speakers. Sometimes if you are having trouble following the dialog, then adjust the center speaker to 1 or 2 db’s (decibels) above normal. I personally keep all volumes at 0 adjustment db (no adjustment at all). This is most manufactures default, but not all, so check to see if they are adjusted to the same volume.
DRC. Dynamic Range Control. This adjustment allows your surround sound to adjust the volumes itself during extra loud or extra low volume scenes of a movie. It is a great feature that Dolby brought to audio. I just love this feature. When you are watching a movie late at night and do not want to disturb your neighbors, DRC is what you are looking for. This is how it works. When encoding the DVD, a sound engineer will program the audio track for a normalized audio range. If the movie exceeds this volume range, DRC kicks in and lowers the volume to the normalized range of the whole move. This means that an explosion will not vibrate your walls and that a whisper in the dialog will be able to be heard.
DRC is normally used for nighttime listening because of its volume controlling nature. If you do not want to wake your kids at night when watching a movie, then turn on DRC. If you want the full audio range of a movie during the day, then turn off DRC.
Speaker existence. Some surround sound systems have this feature which allow you to tell the player whether a speaker is installed or not. If one of your speakers is not installed or has blown out, the make sure to tell the surround sound that the speaker does not exist. Many systems will try to adjust for the lack of that speaker. If at all possible, install all of the speakers and replace any blown speakers.
Distance. Distance is a measure of how far away the speakers are from the listener sweet spot. Please view my article on speaker placement before you adjust this feature. Distance from the listener translates to speaker delay. Since you want the sounds to approach you in the manner that the director intended, it is best to adjust the speaker distance so that the sounds will arrive at the same time. The setting is simple, take a measuring tape and measure the distance in a straight show from the speaker to the listener. Do this measurement for all speakers and adjust your distance accordingly.
Sometimes the distance feature is measured just in delay times or the feature itself may be called delay and the settings may be cryptic or measured in ms (milliseconds). The rule of thumb for this is 1 ms delay for every 1 foot of distance. For example if you sat 15 feet away from a speaker, the adjust that delay to 15ms. Sound travels approximately 1 foot per millisecond.
Prologic vs. Prologic II vs Dolby Digital.
Prologic and Prologic II are Dolby features. Prologic II is an enhanced version of Prologic. In fact Prologic II has a setting to make it work like Prologic. Prologic and Prologic II both process 2 channel audio to turn it into a simulated surround sound. However it is a simulated surround sound or virtual surround sound. It is a great feature! Take a normal stereo cd or stereo movie and it will transform into a great audio experience, however it is not true surround sound. For that you need Dobly Digital, however Dolby Digital is not a converter, Prologic and Prologic II are. This of couse is the dumbed down version. The technical specifications are on Dolby site.
Here’s a quick chart.
MEDIA USES
DVD Movie (with a Dolby Digital soundtrack) Dolby Digital
DVD Movie (stereo soundtrack) Prologic and Prologic II
CD (Stereo or Mono) Prologic and Prologic II
Prologic and Prologic II Settings. Prologic and Prologic II takes a mono or stereo signal and phase shifts the signal to the rear speakers. In mono this means that all the speakers will play the same audio, in stereo, the front left and front right speakers are duplicated (matrixed) to the rear speakers using a mathematical formula. Then end result sounds great, but remember it is still not surround sound, just simulated surround.
A quick note: Prologic II is backwards compatable with Prologic, Meaning that all Prologic media will play on a Prologic II processor.
Prologic does not have settings, but Prologic II does.
Pro Logic – It offers users the robust surround processing of the original Pro Logic which has mono surround channels and a 7KHz surround filter.
Virtual – Is usually used when Pro Logic II is connected to a virtual process for speaker use.
Movie – It can be called Pro Logic II. It has stereo surround channels and no surround filter, unlike Pro Logic which has a mono surround channels and a 7KHz surround filter. Movie mode is the standard required for all A/V systems.
Matrix – Its the same as the Music mode except that the directional enhancement logic is turned off. It may be used to enhance mono signals by making them seem larger.
Music – Is recommended as the mode for sound music systems stereo CD’s (without video).
Prologic II Music Mode. Pro Logic II Music Mode Sound Effects are available when the player is in Music Mode. The settings found in it are:
Dimension – A simple control that alters the ratio of L+R to L-R for the two channel input signals. It allows the user to gradually adjust the soundtrack either towards the front or towards the rear. If a recording is too spacious or strong from the surrounds, it can be adjusted forward to get a better balance. Likewise, if a stereo recording sounds too mono, it can be adjusted toward the rear to get a more enveloping sound.
Panorama – Extends the front stereo image to include the surround speakers for a wraparound effect.
Center Width Control – With Pro Logic decoding, dominant center signals can come only from the center speaker. If no center speaker is present, the decoder splits the center signals equally to the left and right speakers to create a phantom center image. The Center Width control allows adjustments of the center image so it may be heard only from the center speaker; only from the left/right speakers as a phantom image; or from all three front speakers to varying degrees.
Other Audio Setting to deal with stereo signals found on Surround Sound Systems.
3 Stereo – produces three channels (front left, center, front right) of sound from a two channel analog signal. It is not a surround format and does not use the surround speakers.
Soundfield Effects – Digital Soundfield Effects recreates the effects of sounds reflected from walls or ceilings to obtain the sound presence of real environments, basically this enhances a stereo soundtrack to sound like you are in a particular environment.
– Stadium: recreates a large stadium using very long reflection times.
– Stage: recreates a stage environment, increasing sound from the front speakers.
– Hall: recreates a hall using lots of reflection. Suitable for orchestral music such as classical and opera.
– Disco: recreates the disco or club music effect.
– Live: suitable for all types of music.
About the dot numbers
2.0, 2.1, 3.0,4.0, 5.1,6.1,7.1 and probably many other numbers all really mean the same thing; number of speakers and number of sub-woofers, separated by a period. As you may guess 2.0 means a standard stereo and 2.1 is a stereo with a sub-woofer. 3.0 is a stereo and center channel 3.1 is stereo and center channel with a sub-woofer. 4.0 is a quadraphonic system, now obsolete, however still has a strong following. 5.1 is a standard surround sound system with a front left, front right, center, left surround, right surround and a sub-woofer. 6.1 and 7.1 are a new type of speaker setup that has the same speakers as a 5.1, however it adds a rear channel much like the center channel for the front speakers. 6.1 has one rear speakers and 7.1 has 2 rear speakers