Do I need Pro Logic IIx?

Duane very interesting post:

"B & W speakers need solid state amps that have a lot of decay in the bass but are clean."

How does one determine when an amplifier has alot of decay in the bass?

"For set up I place the right speaker against the wall firing into the room and move the left speaker into the room a 1/4" at a time until a bass note in the music I am playing sounds an octave deeper."

Very thorough, might be the way i'd setup a Sonus Faber speaker,

"This process of speaker setup takes about 5 hours."

Doing it the really hard way by Duane :), people pay you for this time? I need a sales course from you.

"I adjust the xover on the subs in 2 Hz increments and are usually riding between 24 and 32 Hz."

If the processor allows those increments....of course and you're way under utilizing the subs, even with b&W 800's setting the croosver to 50 hz splits 2 typical room modes and increase dynamic range, ps throw sock in the port when you do that..

"I move the center speaker until it locks in. Then I go around the room going between the left front and the left rear, then the right front with the right rear. The rears I move up, down, left, and right with in a range and find where it locks in."

Yeah that doesn't work bud, you're not associating the speakers correctly. Sumiko teach you that too?

Well Duane,

To be honest your methods are several steps above average but one of your biggest handicaps is the equipment you choose to use as your reference, to me an expert is going to know what the best equipment is and to use Classe and their limited processors as your sword is to me a bit of a strike against you. They will not allow you to setup your system properly without great difficulty.

You would be shocked at whatI could do to your system after your 5 hours of setup. Your approach is why you don't believe bruceomega's excellent informative totally correct post on 7.1, because you treat every speaker as stereo pair, 7.1 messes you up because it is a three channel matrix like the front speakers.

In surround sound you should be a brand zealot because so few companies make quality surround products. Wide dispersion and quality wide dispersion are two seperate things as you indicate but how many companies actually make a solid center channel?

"Bass is directional except in the frequencies that are the room nodes because the whole room amplifies the sound."

Yeah that's not true, but if i teach you I'll have to charge.

"If a speakers is well designed, the fronts and sometimes the center can run full range with better dimension and agile body to the bass."

Very rare and expensive those speakers are, two subwoofers or 5 which I like personally will always be better because where the mids are great the bass is usually not very good.
This is a problem when the bass driver is attached to the midrange driver. So you might as well accept that reality before you walk in the door. Use your Sencore to measure the difference, my little cheapy system posted here on the gon is +/- 2 DB to 30hz if you ignore 1 very Hi-Q cancellation at 42 hz. No way you get that performance from a fullrange speaker.

Let me close in saying 1. I hope to be teaching a class on how to setup a surround system properly at the local community college this spring and its great to see someone trying hard to do it right!