Last night I watched an entire movie with my analog speaker offsets set with the highest channel at Zero and the rest just below that. My lowest channel the sub is -3. My wife an I watched the entire movie that way. At the end during the credits I pressed the type button and it put back my original settings at -5 for my left and right and my center at -4.5. Rears are at -6db and sub at -7db.

What a difference! The sound of voices in a room or in a hall sounded much more realistic like I was there in the movie. Gun fire was way more dynamic and realistic sounding. The song at the end of the movie sounded much better. Palpable imaging went way up. You could get a feel as if the instruments were in the room with you. All my speakers set close to the zero setting sounded compressed in comparison.

I have done this experiment so many times and it's always a night and day difference for me. When sound is compressed the image is flatter and more like a wall of music that isn't realistic sounding. Some people do like that type of image. They listen for detail that I call hyped detail and if you go to a real performance it just doesn't sound that way. I like classical music and I have been to the Opera house in Sydney and let me tell you that place is amazing! I've been to plenty of concerts in other halls and I strive for that real music sound. Reducing the levels to -4 or -5 in my case these days gets me the sound I remember in these music halls.

Ron

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