UA,
You said so well exactly what I was trying to say. Thank you.

SmoothSound,
I have a 7.0 setup in a room that is designed to have optimum sound and has acoustic treatments. The surrounds add ambience to the sound. With recordings like Dark Side of The Moon, you will get what seem to be discrete surround effects. I bet I could fool quite a few people into thinking the version of DSOTM is actually a surround version. On most recordings its just ambience added though. its almost like Trifield knows that on multi tracked recodings like Floyd, go ahead and put certain things around you- and it does it so naturally- and then on recodrings like jazz, just add some ambience. It really enhances the sense of musicality. It makes it seem more "alive". I pick that word because on recordings like Genesis' Abacab, which I listened to yesterday, it pulls some of the synthesizers to the side/ back of the sound field. In a very cool way that makes you think the front speakers are imaging like crazy. Yet, if you put on a song like "Misunderstanding" (from Duke) which is more straight rock&rolly you get a soundfield thats more focused up front, but still not totally so. As you can tell- I really enjoy it!

As to ambience, you can tell the mode which surrounds to use- and you can also use a filter on the speakers- for example, I use a 7khz filter on the sides to help tone them down just slightly.

Best regards,
Jerry
Main System: 861v6, DSP8000s in corners, DSP7000s Center and Sides, 1-9 humans.