[Mag]

With my AV pre-amp I didn't realize until recently that I was mostly listening in what's called Fold Down mono mix. To be honest I didn't know what the difference was between Fold Down Mono mix and Stereo mix.

With my pre I can switch between digital stereo, Fold Down Mono (dts music mode) and Mono.

So I did just that and now I know what to listen for to tell the difference. In my room I think I prefer Fold Down Mono not that Stereo mix sounds bad. Fold Down Mono centers the phantom image whereas a Stereo mix sounds wider with instruments localizing towards the left or right speaker. Mono sounded too forward for my liking.

I realize with a stereo pre-amp you might not be able to listen in mono.

So the question is how do you prefer to listen to music in your room, Stereo, Fold Down Mono, Mono?

[G Georgopoulos]

With my AV pre-amp I didn't realize until recently that I was mostly listening in what's called Fold Down mono mix. To be honest I didn't know what the difference was between Fold Down Mono mix and Stereo mix.

With my pre I can switch between digital stereo, Fold Down Mono (dts music mode) and Mono.

So I did just that and now I know what to listen for to tell the difference. In my room I think I prefer Fold Down Mono not that Stereo mix sounds bad. Fold Down Mono centers the phantom image whereas a Stereo mix sounds wider with instruments localizing towards the left or right speaker. Mono sounded too forward for my liking.

I realize with a stereo pre-amp you might not be able to listen in mono.

So the question is how do you prefer to listen to music in your room, Stereo, Fold Down Mono, Mono?

I don't know what fold down mono is,stereo was king when i was young,but as years went by,i liked more and more mono,this is a personal thing,whatever anyone chooses is ok,if there is a good stereo system in a good room i still enjoy stereo for a while, but for a permanent system i prefer mono.

 

[Mag]

I should be more specific.

Fold down mono like Neo:6 music mode, extracts info from a 2 channel stereo mix into a mono mix. With an AV pre-amp you can tell the difference by switching music mode.

However a stereo recording can be a Fold Down mono mix and not a Stereo mix and its not so easy to tell the difference unless you know what to listen for. I suppose a recording can be mono and might not be obvious at first.

I have the dvd Pictures at an Exhibition by Emerson Lake & Palmer that's recorded mono and it sounds really good in my 4.1 stereo set up.