I had a n00b question about receivers. If i get a receiver and do the whole 6.1 setup, if i play music, does the music play out of ALL the speakers ? Or does it just play out of the front 2 channels?
If they do play out of all the speakers, is it at the same volume?
Or , does this all depend on the particular receiver?
Just because I had a friend who had a 5.1 system, and I believe that when he played music, it would only come out the front 2 channels
It depends on the source CD and the receiver's DSP functions. The digital signal processing can get sound from all channels, normally at different volumes to create an "ambient" field. Some receivers will have "five channel stereo" processing that has all speakers playing at essentially the same levels.
In most cases running music through any DSP ruins the presentation. This is especially true when you have speakers of all different sizes, and even worse when they are different makes. Having 5 of the same speaker will yeild the best result, but the soundstage will still likely suffer in most cases.
SACD and DVD-A are formats with music in 5.1, where the surrounds are used to widen the soundstage and create ambient effects. This is far superior to playing CDs through 5 ch Stereo.