Onkyo tx-sr606 listening modes issue

[digigriffin]

I a new owner of an onkyo tx-sr606.

When listening to audio that is not DD5.1 I have tried various listening modes to get surround sound from the rear speakers.

However there is a squelchy distortion to the sound from the rear speakers.

This happens with listening modes Dolby PLII Movie, Neo:6 cinema and TV Logic.

This is for audio that is PCM or even DD 2.0

I have replicated this from the SkyHD via hdmi and the freeview tuner in the tv via phono, so it is neither source nor connection specific.

Any suggestions?

 

[digigriffin]

I have googled for this issue and it would seem that other amps do this as well.

So this could be just a short fall of the technology for extracting surround sound from a stereo signal and not a problem with any specific receiver.

If this is a limit of the tehnology why bother developing software to do it, if it can only do an imperfect job?

I had see this before with a sony amp so am not really surprised that the onkyo does the same.

However I was surprised that even DD2.0 gets mangled in this way.

Some other reports described the surround sound vocals as "speaking martian"