Re-Appreciating Good Audio

Streaming Video: YouTube Music Videos; The Voice; American Idol, Award Shows ,,,,,,,Try AVR ’Direct’, or force 2 Channel Stereo Mode.

There is a lot of Pseudo Surround, I don’t know who is doing what.

My small home theater, Sony Dolby 5,1 AVR, I often change the settings to 2 channel stereo and the imaging slams to the front, and the AVR sounds better. 

True 5.1 Sources, DVDs, Blu-Rays, Jurassic Park, Black Hawk Down, Movies, 5.1 can be awesome.

Your main Front L and R need to be decent size full range, mine have 10" woofers, if you rely on subs with small fronts, 2 channel stereo might be easier to understand the dialog, but not great sound.

These are specifically designed so you can sit off-center and still experience L/C/R Imaging.

https://www.hifi-classic.net/review/dbx-soundfield-100-135.html 

@scottlfinsf 

I use a "Jack-of-all-trades" high-end Marantz AV8802 Pre-Processor for almost all my listening and home viewing.  I have a much cheaper Marantz NR1510 in my motorhome, and my partner has gone slightly up with a Marantz NR1720.  We deliberately do not use a centre speaker because our main speakers have very good imaging (KEF) and we want to avoid the multiple comb-filter effects of too many front drivers.  As @elliottbnewcombjr says, switch the sound to Pure Direct if you have that option.  You will have to recalibrate after removing the centre channel, but that is supported on all our Marantz units.

I use the same set-up for 2-channel analogue and CD playback, as well as multi-channel SACD and Pure Audio Blu-ray (including Dolby Atmos).

I am using the home theater bypass function of my Simaudio Moon Ace connected to my Yamaha AV receiver for the front left and right channels of my 5.1 setup. If I want to listen to music, I just use the ACE. I don't know if your Luxman has that capability.

The new avr processors are much better.many have pass through for stero.the best results are with a avr that can be used with separate amps.many are underpowered when you turn all 16 channels on < 100 wpc. I just upgraded to marantz av10 and put 350 watts per channel mac with peaks to 500 watts. I used the amp 10 in mono for the rest of the channels 16 total. Dirac live equalized it all out as all speakers are not the same brand. Another challenge is too many center channel speakers are too small and I had to go to larger.i decided not to go with higher end trinov did not offer much more than marantz. Read the reviews on this av 10 amp 10 combo.enjoy it all. The new dark side of the moon is fantastic on it 

It doesn't take much to get dino stomps, explosions, and car crashes to sound pretty good. That's about the only thing a receiver is good for.