There was Ultrastereo (not us) and SMART.
There was also a company out of Australia doing some interesting things. Long after I left SMART they bought out the Australian company.
Last edited:
More of a remarkable coincidence to the majority than a scam, but definitely a testament to Blumlein's genius.
uhh hey Soundbloke isn't that somewhat semantic both TMM and your rebuttal seem to be saying the same thing?
The problem is mostly when they left and right are playing identical signals. That creates holes in the phantom center frequency response caused by comb filtering. That comb filtering does not exist for a single source, e.g. a center speaker.
There is nothing semantic in establishing the facts. I may agree that this thread was based on a limited understanding of the subject, but arguing the case with an argument that shows a similar lack of knowledge does little to promote proper understanding.
Listen to a mono signal through one speaker, it sounds better than listening through 2 speakers bcos there's no comb filtering.
The amount of (midrange) energy coming from the center channel is huge, it needs an excellent loudspeaker
The amount of (midrange) energy coming from the center channel is huge, it needs an excellent loudspeaker
And now we all want to know; whats speaker du you use? 🙂
For stereo music reproduction, a center can mend one of the bigest flaws in 2 speaker stereo - the fact that a real sound source from the centre hits your ears with a sound wave coming straight at you while on 2 speaker reproduction it comes from 2 locations (and not 1) and from the "wrong" direction, is unfortunate. By electronically extracting the info "coded" as being placed "in the middle" and play it out from a center speaker, great improvement is achieved for many 2 channel stereo recordings. It is discussed before as a matrix system but I felt it was mostly discussed wrt picture so I liked to clarify the above - sorry if it was indeed already said. A properly managed center in a stereo system is fantastic addition done right.
//
I love the center speaker. If you have only stereo speakers, the dialog comes from both sides of the screen (maybe meters between the L&R speakers and the tv) and that's not natural. If the center speaker is below the tv or screen, feels more natural because the voices comes from the image and not the sides. Think about a speaker behind the projection screen of a cinema. the voices comes from the same spot than the image and feels good.
Very true that there won't be any 2 speaker comb filtering. That is discussed extensively in my thread here: Fixing the Stereo Phantom Center - along with some fixes for the problem.
However, I actually prefer mono music thru stereo speakers. I know it's a cheat but I enjoy the bigger space it brings. Maybe I also like the midrange dips of the comb filtering. 😉
Center speaker should be ideal for playing mono recordings. I had center FR speaker only for that purpose. I stopped using it since the connection gets too complicated for everyday use...
Really? I have a different preference...
BTW, Whenever I evaluate something seriously, I usually use one speaker (Dr. Toole's method). I can hear things more clearly.
Really.
Partly it's a tonal balance thing. I often find a single speaker too bright and lacking a solid bass. The mid dips caused by two speaker with the same signal must be pleasing to me for mono music. Dialog is a different matter. I do like Left-Center-Right for space and clarity, but that's for stereo.
Partly it's a tonal balance thing. I often find a single speaker too bright and lacking a solid bass. The mid dips caused by two speaker with the same signal must be pleasing to me for mono music. Dialog is a different matter. I do like Left-Center-Right for space and clarity, but that's for stereo.
You need some education. Equating the Dolby noise reduction system ( you need to learn how that worked it wasnt single ended), with multichannel movie sound is ridiculous. And I guess you have never seen a movie or listened to music or you would have been exposed to Dolby.
There were 3 major platforms for digital movie sound, Dolby, DTS, and Sonys SDDS. The last one had 5 front speakers, and seated close to a large theatre screen it made a noticable difference.
Imho center channel for music is unnecessary unless the mix has a center, but it still falls short if your not sitting in the center. For movies, all of which are mixed with a centre channel its a big advantage. Never heard a movie where hitting the stereo button on the reciever sounded better.
I wish there were more 5.1 music mixes, listen to the Star Wars theme at the beginning of Phantom Menace and then switch it to stereo. Then try that on the pod race.
Last edited:
So the level of the audio dosnt increase as you get closer to the speaker? Its a miracle!
It can be done with DSP and even with analog. It doesn't necessarily sound as good as you'd hope.