Surround feature on Premium Audio

[badassfajita]

All,

First, I'm new to the x5 world. Previous car was an e90 with the Logic 7 system. On the x5, engaging surround mode makes no audible difference to me --none whatsoever, on any type of music that I've listened to. On my e90, I could easily hear a difference--with the mode on, the center speaker would come alive.

I searched on surround and came up empty. Can you guys comment?

Thanks.

[P1]

Pop in a movie and see if that makes a difference.

[apw2607]

Originally Posted by badassfajita

All,

First, I'm new to the x5 world. Previous car was an e90 with the Logic 7 system. On the x5, engaging surround mode makes no audible difference to me --none whatsoever, on any type of music that I've listened to. On my e90, I could easily hear a difference--with the mode on, the center speaker would come alive.

I searched on surround and came up empty. Can you guys comment?

Thanks.

Surround mode is infact licensed Dolby Pro Logic II on the X5. Generally speaking it makes little to no difference with stereo sources, especially considering in stereo all speakers are active anyway. However if you feed it a surround encoded track from say the dvd changer you essentially get 5.1 discrete audio. Try Peter Gabriels greatest hits compilation dvd. Sounds absolutely amazing in surround.

[badassfajita]

Ah got it. Thanks. I figured even for stereo sources it would invoke some kind of virtual surround mode.

[heatmizr]

I can definitely hear a difference in playing regular music sources. It's not huge, but I can hear it and I definitely prefer the Surround setting. Now I will say I run the Fader settings more to the rear, which feels more balanced to me. Setting Fader to middle makes it feel like its all coming out the dashboard to me.
So, it stands to reason that if the Surround setting does something to the rear channels, I am hearing it more since I have my Fader set somewhat to the rear.
Give it a try?