Who listens surround from stereo source?

[rdf]

2006 is not really "most recent" 🙂 Are you talking about DVD or Blu-ray? Which sound track? Your setup?

Lol what?

 

[markus76]

Lol what?

You said "Most recent movies seem to employ surround tracks with some element of HRTF encoding.", without providing any details. It's hard to dispute a claim that is so general.

 

[cuibono]

Since the 1980's I have always connected rear "difference" channels up to the L+ and R+ terminals of a two channel amp. The way movies and music is recorded, this gives a nice ambient 360 Deg fill to the sound.

With two speakers in series, the load on the amp is minimal. Since 60s music is often recorded with ping pong sound, a switch can be used to turn off the rear speakers. A 68uf cap is used to keep low frequencies out of the rear channels since the speakers are small. Really, a band pass should be used since high frequency signals aren't necessary either.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

Thanks John - I really like that for its simplicity. I'll try it sometime when I get the chance (not going to be soon though...)

 

[Elias]

Wittek seems to analyse only 'pure' WFS. I don't believe it is optimal for humans with a head. In Ambisonics there is psychoacoustic enhancements involved in addition to WFS. The transition freq is somewhere around 1kHz where the decoding principle changes.


- Elias

Better wave field reconstruction does not necessarily result in better reproduction. Wittek's PhD thesis is a very interesting read:

"It is often argued that due to the high similarity between the sound fields produced by WFS and natural sources, a high quality of spatial perception is likely to be achieved. [...] However, it cannot be argued that in general a higher similarity results in a better spatial quality."

http://hauptmikrofon.de/HW/Wittek_thesis_201207.pdf

 

[Elias]

Hello johnr66,

Some use also additional series resistor with the surround speakers for level adjustement. The effect dependes on if the recording is wet or dry in ambiance.

If you add delay of about 20ms to the surround speakers, you'll get Dolby Surround 😀


- Elias

Since the 1980's I have always connected rear "difference" channels up to the L+ and R+ terminals of a two channel amp.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.

 

[Pano]

Yep, and it's often the Dolby surround setting on my Yamaha DSP-1 that sounds the best.
It's just the out of phase content. Works well.

 

[cuibono]

Hello johnr66,

... add delay of about 20ms ...

Or just move the speakers back 20 feet!