Since most of us have onkyo's I have a question to ask everyone. I finally got around to balancing my 6C, 6T's and 4B's since upgrading and was playing around with some movies. I noticed on my onkyo 805 that there was a difference in the surround field between THX Cinema and Doby Digital. I found the doby digital had more punch and a much wider surround sound field. Maybe I'm crazy. Has anybody else noticed anything about the two settings? It's my understanding that THX Cinema is just additional processing of DD, but I'm not sure why it sounds flatter. For example I used the opening two scenes of Gladiator. On THX the horses move left to right between the FL to FR. On DB they move RL --> FL --> FR.  

---

Speakers: Aperion 6T's, 6C, 4B's, and 8D
Receivers: Onkyo 805 and Pioneer SX-1050
DVD player: Oppo 981HD
TT: Pioneer PL-71
Amp Selector: Niles DPS-1

Interesting, I've got Gladiator here, I'll check it out and get back to you. . .

---

Jason Hicks
Aperion Audio Guru

I have noticed that as well. It seems that whatever the true source of the material whether it be Dolby Digital, or THX from the DVD menu, stereo for two channel music it always sounds better. I guess the processing in different EQ settings alters the source for the worse in most cases. Don't quite understand why though. Maybe due to the extra step along the way. Like how some receivers can't pass through a 1080p to 1080i or whatever be the case without adding artifacts and errors. That's the only thing I can think of. Needless to say, I let everything come through the way it was intended and don't mess with the different settings. I almost feel like I paid for all these settings for bragging rights or something as I don't enjoy them really.

I wanted to check this out today, but we're down a man so hopefully I can do some comparisons with the different modes tomorrow. 

---

Jason Hicks
Aperion Audio Guru

Sounds great Jason. I'm interested to see your response. I've also noticed that THX cinema was my default for TV and have switched it to Neural 5.1 which really utilizes the surrounds better then THX cinema. 

---

Speakers: Aperion 6T's, 6C, 4B's, and 8D
Receivers: Onkyo 805 and Pioneer SX-1050
DVD player: Oppo 981HD
TT: Pioneer PL-71
Amp Selector: Niles DPS-1

Just checked it out and the surrounds were absolutely mixed higher when I switched over from THX Cinema to Dolby Digital, George Lucas fails again!  

I didn't get a chance to check out the Neural setting, but as for the THX modes that's always been my favorite, especially the 7.1 setting that will matrix out rear channels from a 5.1 source. 

I did switch it over to DTS Neo:6 and that seemed to be better than both the regular Dolby Dig and THX Cinema settings, but that would make sense since the disc I was watching was encoded as DTS ES. 
 

---

Jason Hicks
Aperion Audio Guru