How does adding a center channel affect stereo music listening and other sound sources?
I'm about to add a center channel to my 2.1 TV / music setup. The receiver is a Denon x2300h.
My question is what happens to music, podcasts and shows that I listen through now that I have a center channel attached? Do I need to manually switch to "stereo" mode in order to listen to music properly? What is the correct mode to have the receiver on otherwise? If I'm watching netflix or HBO through a chromecast and enable "5.1" or some other surround source, am I going to do more harm than good by only having a 3.1 system?
If someone could explain to me how to best use my receiver in a 3.1 setup and how to avoid degrading music and audio as a result, I'd appreciate it!.
Posted Sep 15, 2019, 8:05 PM UTC
16
You can set the receiver to straight/direct mode. When you listen to a stereo source only the left and right speakers will play audio. Watching a 5.1 movie, the surrounds will be downmixed to the left and right speakers which is fine. Just make sure to disable the surround speakers in the receiver settings.
Ok, so I don't need to even tell the receiver that I'm missing the surrounds? It will automatically detect that speakers are not attached and downmix those tracks to L/R?
He literally just told you to change the setting in the receiver so it knows you’re missing the surrounds.
That doesn't answer my question, now does it?
If you're going to be passive aggressive and unhelpful maybe you should just refrain from commenting?
Yes it does precisely answer your question. The question was answered before it was asked, which is why I commented because you appeared not to have read his reply before asking.
This is copy/paste what he wrote: “Just make sure to disable the surround speakers in the receiver settings.”
That means your receiver does NOT automatically “know”. You DO have to “tell it”. You have to change a setting to disable them. Literally what he said already.
It should save the setting for that format. So if you change it to Stereo for stereo audio, it should always default to that, you don’t need to change it every time you switch formats, just the first time.