I was just wondering, but does anyone like or use any of the various DSP's available on receivers today?

-James

I personally do not use any DSP. I use Stereo, Pure Direct, 5 Ch Stereo, and DTS/Dolby. Many of our customers use the stadium/game soundfield for aporting events. IMO I think it sounds terrible on Sports.

Mike

my thoughts exactly
I try to stay away from processed food too.

I try to stay away from processed food too.

Even Velveeta?

i hate dsp's.

I hate the way they sound as well!!

We use Prologic II or Sony's Cinema Studio modes. I don't personaly like either but we were getting a lot of calls.

" I paid $25000 for my TV/Surround sound and I can't hear anything from my rear speakers."

No matter how much we try to explain.

I always tell the customers they can use them if they want to, but that is not how the director wanted you to hear it. And then there is the older couples who are hard of hearing so everything gets set to 6 channel stereo. Personally I don't like any of them...DSP's that is.

Technically, any algoritms that process the signal are DSP. That includes many of the often useful features found on some of the new recievers such as parametric equalization, and time delay for speakers. I find these two DSP algorithms very useful.

As for the cheesy "hall" or "staduium" type effects, I believe they are a waste of energy and memory on any of these recievers.

DSP.

The Cheez-Wizz of Audio


(And I use "Wizz" disparagingly, in a reference to Marantz's Wizz.it)


I use the stadium mode to PROVE beyond a doubt that all the speakers can indeed put out audio. Also to show how echo in DSP makes spoken words less intelligible. In other words, I sell against DSP.

For my money, DSP choices should be

OFF for all music
Dolby Digital, dts* for all movies
5 channel stereo** if they are going to have a party

I cannot see using THX, AT ALL, nohow and never, for two reasons:
1. It takes a high fidelity signal (as high as the mixing people would let it be) and mangles it so that it sounds like a horn speaker whose highs are attenuated by a screen, and then adds some echo so the sound is less distinct than the actual sound track.
2.You can get THX computer speakers. Doesn't that prove my point?

DSP in general is a stupid idea. It takes audio that is playing in your room and therefore has the sound of your room, then superimposes the sound of another room or space on top of that. That would fly perfectly if the DSP would first subtract the sound of my room (can that even be done?).

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE...

Every recording already has a sense of space about it, either from recording with mikes that pick up room sounds where the performance was, or from studio sweetening where the producer added sounds and air to make the recording sound the way he wanted it to be. And now we will add DSP to that, screwing up the original intention?


*plus other varieties as they come out.

**just be sure that you do not have an installer, as we did, who explained that this is really the surround mode to use to listen to music, all the time, when the client's job is mixing movie sound tracks....


Oh yeah, I forgot to say, don't get me started.

It seems that, by definition, DSP increases distortion, because it increases the difference between the signal and its reproduction.

i use 5 channel stereo for TV watching when implementing a plasma/theater in large multi-purpose room like a living room. I wish we could all get receivers without the DSP "Fluff" as I call it. Manufactuurers should spend the money on better components to build the unit.

Yeah, like more inputs