Hello all, I'm pretty new to the HT scene and have a couple questiosn I'm hoping someone can help me with.

I currently have a Denon 3803 and two front tower speakers. My questions regard the audio options on various DVDs, and the processing choices on the receiver.

On many DVDs there is the option of DTS 5.1 and Stereo. ALthough i am not taking advantage of the 5.1 mix, to my ears the DTS sounds cleaner with higher sound quality. Stereo mixes seems to sound more full, picking up bass that the DTS mix doesn't seem to have.

Can anyone explain to me what my receiver is doing to the sound when it knows I only have the 2 front speakers? Which mode should I be in to make things sound the best?

I am mainly interested in music and concert DVDs. This, along with a lack of $$, is why I've only got 2 speakers right now.

Thanks in advance for any help and education you can provide.

Multi channel audio is down mixed to two channel stereo and "Pure Direct" is the best mode to be in for two channel stereo.

DTS lacking bass? How are you connecting between the DVD & receiver, digital? Are you sure you've turned the subwoofer off in the receiver setup?

This all makes perfect sense. DTS is 4db louder than Dolby in playback. Therefore, it will always sound better unless you compensate with the volume control when doing comparisons. However, there are other issues when comparing...

Dolby is generally much hotter for bass. LOTR is a perfect example. The Dolby tracks on all 3 movies are ridiculous for bass, while the DTS tracks on the EE versions are more realistic (if that term can be applied to these movies), but seem like they have less bass at first listen. Also, DTS tends to have the bass spread out amongst the 5 channels, whereas Dolby tends to have more in the LFE channel. Not sure that point matters for this discussion, though.

The bass tracks for LOTR (original release) were mixed at about +10db if I remember right. Hell on systems if you try to listen at reference.

the dts might sound cleaner beacuse of the limited info that is being sent to the speakers.. to hear everything you should listen in stereo.. but if you think it sounds better in dts then that is how you should listen to it. i know you can disable the center and sub on that receiver but can you disable the surrounds? if so try that out...