Chapter

5 Listening to your system

Choosing the listening mode

This receiver offers a variety of listening modes to accommodate playback of various audio formats. Choose one according to your speaker environment or the source.

While listening to a source, press the listening mode button repeatedly to select a listening mode you want.

AUDIOTOOLS

PARAMETERMENU

•The listening mode is shown on the display on the front panel.

Important

•The listening modes and many features described in this section may not be available depending on the current source, settings and status of the receiver.

Auto playback

AUTO/ STREAM DIRECT

 

AUTO SURROUND/

 

DIRECT

Note

•Stereo surround (matrix) formats are decoded accordingly using NEO:6 CINEMA or DOLBY PLIIx MUSIC (VSX-1023 only) (see Listening in surround sound below for more on these decoding formats).

•When listening to the ADAPTER input, the S.R AIR feature is selected automatically (see Using the Advanced surround on page 35 for more on this).

Listening in surround sound STANDARDALC/

ALC/

STANDARD SURR

Using this receiver, you can listen to any source in surround sound. However, the options available will depend on your speaker setup and the type of source you’re listening to.

•If the source is Dolby Digital, DTS, or Dolby Surround encoded, the proper decoding format will automatically be selected and shows in the display.

When you select STEREO ALC (Auto Level Control stereo mode), this unit equalizes playback sound levels if each sound level varies with the music source recorded in a portable audio player.

When you select STEREO, you will hear the source through just the front left and right speakers (and possibly your subwoofer depending on your speaker settings). Dolby Digital and DTS multichannel sources are downmixed to stereo.

The following modes provide basic surround sound for stereo and multichannel sources.

Explanatory notes

No: No connected / Yes: Connected / Two: Two speakers are

connected / –: Whether connected or no

Type of surround

 

Suitable sources

Surround back speaker(s) (VSX-1023 only)

Front height speakers (VSX-1023 only)

 

modes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two channel sources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEREO ALC

 

See above.

–

–

DOLBY PLIIx MOVIEg

 

Movie

Yesa

No

 

DOLBY PLII MOVIE

 

 

No

–

DOLBY PLIIx MUSICb, g

Music

Yesa

No

 

DOLBY PLII MUSICb

 

 

No

–

DOLBY PLIIx GAMEg

 

Video games

Yesa

No

 

DOLBY PLII GAME

 

 

No

–

DOLBY PLIIz HEIGHTc, g

Movie/Music

No

Yes

 

NEO:6 CINEMAd

 

Movie

–

–

 

NEO:6 MUSICd

 

Music

–

–

 

DOLBY PRO LOGIC

 

Old movies

–

–

 

Straight Decodee

 

No additional effects

No

–

 

STEREOf

 

See above.

–

–

 

Multichannel sources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEREO ALC

See above.

–

–

The simplest, most direct listening option is the AUTO SURROUND feature. With this, the receiver automatically detects what kind of source you’re playing and selects multichannel or stereo playback as necessary.

•Press AUTO/DIRECT repeatedly until AUTO SURROUND shows briefly in the display (it will then show the decoding or playback format). Check the digital format indicators in the display to see how the source is being processed.

DOLBY PLIIx MOVIEg

Movie

Two

No

DOLBY PLIIx MUSICb, g

Music

Yes

No

DOLBY DIGITAL EXg

Movie/Music

Yes

No

DTS-ESg

Movie/Music

Yes

No

DTS NEO:6g

Movie/Music

Yes

No

DOLBY PLIIz HEIGHTg

Movie/Music

No

Yes

Straight Decodee

No additional effects

–

–

STEREOf

See above.

–

–

34