I get fooled a lot. Sometimes I don't know if I want to watch TV after I am done listening to music so I put mu 2ch and 3ch amp on at the same time. When I listen to music I always put my HT preamp in bypass mode. That means that ONLY the left and right speakers are playing. More then a few times I find myself getting up from my chair and putting my ear up to the center just to make sure. It is always off but I still do it. Pretty cool.
Stereo Imaging
I think I've written about this before, but I wonder how many of us who use the same system for HT and music get fooled into suspecting the center channel must be generating the center image. I was playing the Abkco disc of "Let It Bleed" and found myself compelled once again to put my ear to the center channel to assure it was not generating the strong centered image I was hearing. Intellectually I knew it wasn't because I've tested it before, but the image is so strong it creates a cognitive dissonance. In a world of 7.1, I'm afraid I forget just how effective stereo can be in generating a soundstage.
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