I have Athena speakers, and I have tried 3 different 5.1 receivers, from Sony, Kenwood, and Panasonic.

All of them have the same "problem" and that is my rear surrounds sound great in movies, but when I play any music through them, the music sounds really hollow because the surrounds just play a really quiet version of the song, and it sounds terrible, I would rather not have the surrounds play anything compared to what they are outputting right now.

Is this a common problem, what can I do to fix it?

I am using a HTPC, with an Auzentech X-Meridian sound card using digital output, and the signal is getting detected by my receiver as 5.1.

I have calibrated all the channels so they are all outputting the same decibals.

Is the music your listening to encoded for "surround"?
What surround mode are you selecting on the A/V receiver? Dolby Pro-Logic IIx would be best IMO.

What is the source material? If it is stereo, try listening in stereo for a while to get a feel for what is in the source. If your HTPC is putting out a 5.1 signal, it is synthesizing the extra channels and may not be using optimum algorithms for it. OTOH, your AVR may be saying 5.1 because it is getting stereo but it is applying the synthesis. In any case, you need to try using DPL IIx, if the sources are stereo, and adjusting the width/depth to suit. It will NEVER be truly surround-y like some original mixes.

What surround mode are you selecting on the A/V receiver? Dolby Pro-Logic IIx would be best IMO.
Or some sort of "5 channel stereo" setting.

My audio source is MP3s & CDs from my computer, likely all stereo stuff.

My Auzentech sound card and my receiver are set to Dolby Digital, because that is what I want it set to when I watch movies.

So likely either my HTPC or my receiver or both are synthesizing the extra channels extremely poorly.

I would like to stop it from doing this, what is the easiest way, while still keeping surround sound for my movies? Will I have to change settings all the time, that sounds like a hassel, and the bigger problem is that my wife won't like that at all, it has to be a plug & play solution.

Help!

DVD's should sound fine (since they are DD or DTS encoded).

MP3 will sound like crap unless 192k or better.
CD's can get acceptable surround results using DPLIIx.
It's a 99% probability that none of your MP3's or CD's are encoded for Dolby Digital (or any surround) format.

See if your soundcard can be set to pass both bitstream (DD/DTS) and PCM stereo.

I have a very good collection of high quality MP3's that are all 192k+, and I am satisfied with the sound coming from the main speakers, just not the surrounds, to the point where I don't want any sound coming from my surrounds except for during movies.

So when I am playing MP3's, should I set my receiver to Stereo mode then, is that the easiest say?

Or is there a way to tell my HTPC to output stereo when the source is stereo, and it will take care of it automatically?

Try the 5-Channel Stereo mode or Neo:6 if your equipment supports it. I prefer either of these two modes to Dolby PL2. My 49TXi doesn't do PL2x, so I can't comment on it.

All my receivers are quite old, about 10 years, so I dont think they have those modes.

I will play around with the modes when I get home, but if I remember correctly, because I am using the digital input on the receiver, the stereo mode didn't output any sound, only the surround mode did.

Anyone know if I can tweak my HTPC to send out stereo signal digitally?

You need a receiver (or pre/pro) that provides DPLIIx (or perhaps Neo6). There will be a marked difference/improvement in surround "effect". Until then... use stereo only for MP3's and CD's.

All other "5 channel surround" modes are not worth the bastardization of the intended/desired sound. There's not much you can do at this point without an upgrade IMO.

Anyone know if I can tweak my HTPC to send out stereo signal digitally?
Set it for PCM (Stereo).

Thanks for the info Ratman, much appreciated.

You've probably also got a 2-channel analog speaker output on your HTPC. Run it to a 2-channel input on your receiver (like CD in). Switch your receiver to the DVD input for DVDs, and the CD input for any stereo audio you are playing on the HTPC.

Make sure that the polarity of all of your speaker cables is correct. If you have the positive and negative swapped at one end or the other, music can sound hollow.

Don't fix this at the receiver. Make it so that the computer outputs stereo when the source is stereo. If it outputs 5.1 even when you're playing stereo material, what happens is that the sound driver is re-encoding to Dolby Digital before sending it to the receiver. You do not want that!

Ok I checked the polarity of all my speakers, they are all correct.

I found a button on my remote to switch the receiver to stereo mode while staying selected on the surround sound inputs, and this worked well, so it did solve my problem.

But I would like it if my HTPC output stereo signal when it was stereo source, and surround when surround source. Jwatte, any idea how to do this? I am using MCE XP, and my sound card is an Auzentech X-Meridian 7.1, supposed to be one of the best audiophile level sound cards you can buy so it should be able to do anything any other sound cards can do I would have thought.

I have been playing with the software settings, and I was able to better configure my room setup, and speaker locations closer to what they actually are, and adjusted for room size, and what a difference, the hollowness is gone.

Now when I switch between stereo & surround, the surround actually sounds better! Now to go test my movies to see if they are still ok, but I think they will be even better too.