We assess the customer. The more "tweaky" they are, the better chance they'll get some control. They invariably want to use multi channel stereo. Ugh. What an awful way to listen to "A Love Supreme". What are you gonna do?

agreed, we never give them an option, if they question it, I remind them that they hired us to make operation of their gear easy for them to use

It's nice when a receiver has discrete codes for every surround mode. Yamaha and Marantz seem to be good for this. Always tell the customer it's going to be set on the best surround mode and they're happy with that. On music only sources, I try to convince the customer that two channel mode sounds the best, it reduces any sort of comb filtering or excessive delay from an array of speakers - stereo always sounds less muddy....Gotta love it though when salesmen sell the idea of multiple surround modes to the customer and they think all the features should be used. In my opinion, manufacturers should reduce the amount of fake surround modes on receivers and stick to the ones that are important.

I have to disagree here with the consensus here. Many of my clients ask for and get surround mode control. I always configure the systems for a correct default setting, and tell the client that this is the "right" surround mode starting point. Then they are shown a subpage on the remote if they like to fiddle. After all, I'm selling them a surround system, why would they not like to play with the surround?

I tell them the proper setting, show them the subpage with the choices. I also tell them they should use what sounds best to them, after all it is thier system. Who am I to tell a clinet what sounds best to them. So needles to say on return visits I often find all the inputs left on 5/ch or 7/ch.