Just curious. I have the GS300 with Mark Levinson Stereo. Sounds great of course. I'm wondering if others always leave the Surround system active. I have found that on a few CDs the sound is preferable to some "ears" with the Surround off.

 

i only use the surround on movies. other than that it's always on just regular. guess i can try surround a little more often but i think i prefer regular.

 

I typically leave surround off for cds and turn it on for DVD-Audio. Generally, that's what sounds best to my ear. I find that lead vocals that should sound front and center sound kind of diffused across the front when I leave surround on for regular cds.

What I'm having a hard time with is the cds with DTS-Surround (like Sting's Nothing Like The Sun). On that one, neither setting sounds quite right to me vocally. I still have to play with that a bit more.

Another thing I want to play with more is what effect the ASL has on the music, but it hasn't bubbled up on my priority list yet.

 

This pertains to when I am alone in the car. That's when I can crank the system without complaints!

Anyway, I use 99% CDs, and I leave the Surround mode on all the time. I'm not crazy about the lack of ability to position the vocals optimally--they are too strong from the C speaker for my taste. But using the L/R and Front/Rear sound balance controls, I set it 2 clicks to the Left, and 2 clicks to the Rear. That helps create a nicer soundfield balance with better envelopment. Almost as good as my Pro Logic II Alpine system in "the other car," but not quite!

One other thing I found really helps is to pull the mid band of the tone control down 2 clicks from "0." The Treble remains at zero, and the bass is adjusted as necessary for the particular CD's bass content. Usually it is at zero, or maybe +1 or -1 range. I also activated the ASL full time as that does a pretty good job of riding the gain/bass as vehicle speed changes.

 

According to most hardcore audiophiles, accuracy is best, and playing a 2-channel source in simulated surround sound mode is not true or accurate to its original recording. Playing a DVD-Audio disc or DVD movie on the other hand that is specifically encoded for 7.1 unique channels of sound; that's another story... then it's preferable.

But in the end the audiophiles can't tell you what sounds best to you. It may not be as accurate of the real recording, but then again turning up the bass and/or treble levels is technically just as bad and I know most of us do that.

 

I agree with Threxx.

Once I set my system up the first day, it "remembered" my preferences on the surround setting. Radio stations, no surround. But when I insert a DVD-audio or DVD movie, it automatically switches to surround. I haven't had to touch that setting since I bought the car. I've gone back in and tested, and yep, it remembers what you like.

But then, I don't play anything except DVD-audio, DVD movies, or DTS discs anyway. Once I graduated to surround in the car, I can't/won't go back. No more two-channel CDs, and no simulated surround.

Sadly, some of the DVD-audio discs I've purchased say they're surround sound, but they're actually simulated. Cheesy. Britney Spears, Sting, and others are violators (or victims) of such crap. Record companies were too cheap to go back to the original studio records and mix them down into 5 or 7 channels; so they just add echo or whatever they wanna call it so it appears that there is sound coming from your surround speakers. It's phony surround but hey, I'm sure a lotta guys are still okay with a little Britney coming from the back seat. Hmm did I just say that?

The DTS-encoded are the best in my opinion, and have the best true discrete multi-track production values, although they are somewhat hard to find (and might be a dying or dead breed of music). I have some where the producers returned to the original 24-or 48-track studio recordings and mixed them down to 5 or 7 tracks. Of all things, the best example I have is a Marvin Gaye DTS CD*...brilliant. Blows people away when they hear it. Not really my kinda music, but a great demo of the ML system and ability of a producer to pan different instruments and singers around the speaker array. And because the Lex interior is such a nice cocoon, it actually sounds better than the surround system in my home!

*Marvin Gaye: Forever Yours (DTS Compact Disc)

p.s. I'm not gonna spring for satelittle radio until true multi-channel is available. Until there is a demand for multi-track music, however, record companies ain't gonna spend the extra $$ and will continue to put out 2-track CDs (even though everybody records in multi-track, there's still only a need for 2-track product). So I guess I'm not gonna see satellite surround while I own this car.

 

These audiophiles are not talking about car systems. Even playing just the straight 2-ch mode, the stereo signal is repeated from the rear door and back shelf speakers, smearing the image drastically. Then you do your listening from a strong offset position, which destroys any chance at a phantom center image. In an optimally designed and tuned in-car surround system (and I'm not saying the ML is one), these disadvantages can be largely reduced, getting you much closer to the intended stereo presentation than is possible from a "4-corner" car stereo system.

Are you saying that when you play discrete 5.1 material in the GS ML system, you turn on the "Surround" button? That activates 2 surround decoders, one fed from L/R, the other fed from Ls/Rs. Then all the sigals are mixed together. I wonder if an audiophile would sanction that? But turning off the Surround mode lets the 5.1 signal pass thru au naturale (the Ls/Rs are of course split to fill the 4 surround speakers).

Using the tone control is not bad--if you like the end result. That's all that matters. Let the audiophiles buy their own GS!

 

Drexlex has recently informed me that DVD-A 5.1 enhanced surround sound material is not played by the ML system. In order to have discrete surround sound, you must force the disc to play a compressed track such as Dolby Digital, or if you're lucky, DTS.

Winsalem, perhaps this is why your DVD-A sounds so bad. If you keep the surround on, the system will use the 2-channel advanced stereo track and "create" a surround version using software.

Drexlex- I'm not as audio literate as yourself so please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, if you can post those instructions you gave me, I believe everyone would benefit. Thanks!