Rear channel problem

I have a Outlaw 1050 Receiver that has been working great. Last night I noticed some static comming from the rears during CD playback. It was in both rear speakers but not the fronts.
Rear speakers are El cheapo JBL mono driver type. I figure the speakers may be blown or it may be the amp. To debug I unhooked one of the fronts and played it as a rear speaker. The distortion was gone!!

The suprise came when I hooked up the JBL again. The distortion was gone. How can this be?

The only thing that I can think of is.

1. The speaker wire connection was faulty to the JBL. They have the cheap spring clip type of connector.

2. Some kind of charge potential was built up in the wire that was discharged when I unhooked the speaker.

Why did it fix both rear channels when I only unhooked one. I am happy that the distortion is gone but I would like to understand why it is gone.

Any input is appreciated.

I had a problem that sounds similar in nature. I noticed that it seem to have something to do with the surround mode I was using. The "static" was most prevalent in the "NATURAL" mode. Does that match up with your experience?

I was in DVD mode. I have not compared it to natural mode. How did you fix it?

The "natural" DSP mode has a bit of a problem from what I've read on other forums. It has something to do with the chip that does the EX decoding.

There is no "fix" available that I'm aware of.

I for one don't really use DSP's, I prefer the 2 channel sound for music.

Alfer



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I didn't fix it either. I don't use the natural mode with CDs. After listening to various modes over a period of weeks, I ended up in the same place as ALFER. If it was recorder for 2 channels I like listening in 2 channels.

I thought 2 channel mode on the outlaw was just another one of the dsp modes? Do you mean that you have hooked the analog outputs of you dvd or CD player to the Outlaw or are you using a coax from DVD to Outlaw and then setting it to two channel mode?

I always thought that stereo passed digitally was still interpreted directly as stereo and could be processed in some DSP if desired. I never considered that the digital input would derive stereo from another DSP mode. Part of me thinks that it is indifferent either way; If the input were 2 channel analog, it could directly be amplified, whereas any digital (optical or coax) input must receive some sort of Digital Signal Processing before being amplified. Maybe its a terminology discrepancy.

But, in my situation, I have both the coax and the analog 2 channel output from my DVD player going to the Outlaw. I run the Coax to the DVD input and the analog to the CD input. I did this so I was able to chose which signal went to the TV. That way, if I am bored with the sounds from a video game or whatnot I can switch the 1050 to 'CD' which does not switch video, but gives me audio from my DVD player.

I guess its common sense, but my point mainly was that there is significant difference in sound when using the analog 2 channel and the digital coax in stereo mode. So, DSP or not, the digital signal (as expected) is more clear in my particular set-up than the analog counterpart.

S.

At the risk of repeating MrSandman's comments, The DSP involved in taking a stereo digital source (the CD) and creating an output that is a digital stereo signal is pretty straight forward. Not much processing required. But taking a stereo source and converting it to one of the DSP modes (splitting it into multiple channels) is quite a bit more complex.

I am using a digital coax between my CD and the 1050. I experience distorsion only in the NATURAL mode using the CD as the source. The NATURAL mode works fine when coming from a 5.1 DVD source.