In the manual, it says that the surround sound button is for playing DVDs. Great, but what does it do if you aren't playing a DVD. Any idea?

I can tell that there is a difference in the sound, depending on the setting of the surround sound button, when playing music or just talk from the XM sat and when playing AM or FM.

What do other people do with this button and what does the button do on non-DVD sources, e.g. does it try to simulate surround sound or what? The manual is of no help.

Advice?

 

I always use the surround on. It brings up the staging up front and elevates it, the way it's supposed to be.

 

I have it turned off for all my audio sources. At first I thought getting the ML was the worst decision until I turned off the surround sound. All of a sudden, everything sounded much better.
With typical pop music, rock and roll, techno, rap, they all sound better (to me) with it off. The only thing I could think of would be classical music where the splitting of the sound would be more consistent across the channels with all the different instruments. Otherwise, all the vocals and lead instruments come out the center speaker, which doesnt sound as good to me.

 

You should use the Surround button when playing a DVD video with Dolby Digital/5.1. You definitely want the voice to come from the center and the rest of the sound stage up front. The rears are meant to fill in and give the effect of surround.

 

That part I figured out right away. But should I keep it on for other sources? And, if so, for which ones (CD music, FM music, XM music, XM talk, AM talk). I'd love to hear pros and cons.

 

The pros to using it on other modes, sound is more crisp, bass sounds more defined. Cons, it's not as loud or filling as regular audio is usually played in stereo other than AM (mono).

 

As is the case with most things, there are many variables in what "sounds good" on a ML or any surround audio system. This is very similar to using computers, in that the software determines the usefuleness of a program.

Some surround DVD's are not mixed well and others may have older audio data that don't permit discreet audio sounds to be separated cleanly. Most new DVD-Videos of movies and concerts are mixed very well by expert audio engineers in the studio. Almost all DVD-Audio discs are excellent and take great advantage of the Surround capabilities on ML. SACD software is not compatible with the ML system.

I tend to watch Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS mixes of the bands I like. (I run movies and concerts all day long for my dental patients- a pretty cool work environment), so I have access to lots of these surround discs.

Look for these DVD discs to really demonstrate the ML, it'll knock your socks off. Try: Eagles- "Hell Freezes Over" DVD (with the DTS mix), Santana's "Abraxas" DVD-Audio, "The Pulse" DVD. Way too many to list.

 

If you are playing 5.1 DVDs, you will always hear surround regardless if the Surround mode is on or off. When Surround is off, you hear the 5.1 played directly. When Surround is turned on, Logic7 decoding expands the L/R channels of the 5.1 source and overlays the decoded 5.1 outputs on top of the 5.1 discrete source. This extracts any phantom C vocals from the L/R channels and mixes them into the C speaker, and extracts ambience and mixes it into the surrounds. It helps knit the fronts and surrounds together spatially, especially nice for music mixes. Also, at least in my 06 ML, the EQ gets better when Surround is turned on. A cheap trick to add value to the special sauce ML Surround mode.

 

My surround is on full time. I prefer to have the sound from from L, R, AND Center..to me it provides a fuller more complete surround.