5.1 home theater system compatability with music?

Question

If i purchased a 5.1 channel home theater system, would music, say from an mp3 cd, play on all 6 of the speakers (four satellite speakers, a center channel speaker and a subwoofer)? Does this depend on the encoding of the cd?

Answer 1

yeah it will play on all of it. it will treat all 6 of your speakers like a stereo setup. with all the right channel sounds coming from the 2 right speakers and the same with the left speakers. set you receiver to output to all speakers. dont set any surround modes. it will sound best then. that mode is usually called matrix on most receivers.

Answer 2

For non 5.1 sources, a few different things can happen. If you have a newer system with say, Dolby pro logic II, dts neo etc, they take standard two channel music, and spread it around a 5.1 system so that it will generally have a pleasing sound.

Most 5.1 sound systems have options that you can play with so you can pick one that best suits your taste. I've even seen a few that will do something easier on the ears, and make a 2.1 mix, that is, just a left and right stereo mix, with the subwoofer handling the lows, leaving out the center channel and rear channels.

It's nice when you aren't really in the mood for some razzle-dazzle mix.

CDs, MP3 and such are generally not encoded for any kind of surround sound however. You'll get the best sound from a true 5.1 source like Super Audio CD, blu ray, DVD, and the PS3 and xbox 360 games with the proper digital connection.