I have a general question about surround sound.

It's a big deal in that, it may offer the same amount of upgrade to the soundstage that stereo offered over mono. Does it do that at this point and time?, on some disc's yes.

I think that down the road (could be a good while), your going to have many new disc's come to market that use the multichannel format to it's fullest potential..that is: music that should have sounds that come from everywere in an unreal manor as you mention..A lot of new-age/trance/rock and that type of stuff will use the format with great results. Recordings that only need to maintain their up-front soundstage with only hall/room ambience will benefit from a discrete center channel, not the fake one we must use in our two channel setups. The rear/side speakers will provide the reflections for these recordings.

All that said, I have been playing around with different multichannel setups for a couple of years now and have formed a few opinions. My first try in a 12X17 foot room only worked to some degree if I used the long wall. The short wall setup always placed the rears in poor positions. The long wall setup (my listening position had to be against the rear wall) was much more real sounding but did not allow for the rears to be behind me so was still not first rate.

My second system try was in a much larger room 23x27 feet, this room is a dedicated room and is setup friendly with little to no WAF..now I was getting some place as far as speaker placement with no need to tweak speaker distance/delay/height and types used for rears. Still had a small problem though, I also wanted to watch Dvd's on my large RPTV in this system..this stuck the tv in the middle of things up front with a large center speaker on top of it which was to high IMO but did allow vertical placement with a tilt down towards the listening position. I used it this way and liked it a lot for a short time.

Then I had a brainstorm, get rid of the RPTV and get a projector..kill two birds with one stone, no large TV to muck the sound up and I could place the center speaker on the floor, I'm happy to say that if you have a large room, no WAF and don't mind spending a ton of money you to can reap the benefits of multichannel music.

Now if all those recordings would just hurry up!!!

Dave

I share your sentiments on surround sound

two channel done right can be phenomenal
spend the money there not on multi

multi channel smears the image unless it is set up perfectly and with a recording which actually incorporates the spatial relationships of the room. very few recordings are done true multi channel outside of the big budget action movies. WHo wants a boom boom room for just that? What you typically have in a multi channel recording is just mixing of multichannel info into 5.1 channels and no ambience or hall dynamics. One rare example of good multi is the last track on the Eagles Hell Freezes Over dvd - one singer per channel. String quartets or jazz trios should be recorded well in a 5.1 setting, but typically are not. Most 5.1 is very old historical (best seller back catalog stuff) two channel sources.

I just don't understand home theatre

more is not better

but it's a great way for people with older stereo systems to feel like they are actually missing something and get the upgrade bug

and you can impress your friends with psuedo imaging

tom

The type of image that audiophiles love from stereo does not sound like anything you may hear in a live venue. Many audiophiles have given up, I think, on reproduced music sounding in the home like the real experience. Focusing on attributes of sound reproduction that are kind of inward looking, as though sound systems were to be compared solely to other sound systems, they strive for qualities that are not there in the real thing. The whole notion of being able to differentiate between musicians within an orchestra is one of these attributes sought by audiophiles. Unless sitting very close, most orchestras, except for the times the music demands a soloist or that only one section be playing, sound way more homogeneous, at least to my ears, than what audiophiles cherish. The hall ambiance is only hinted at in two-channel reproduction. Again, the whole thing hinges on what will be done with the new technical possibilities at hand. If it is anything like the production of stereo recordings, you can rest assured that it will be extremely variable. Thinking that only two channels are required is like hardening of the arteries.

The hallambience can be much more than hinted at IMO. As my system has "matured" with room treatments, cables, power-line conditioning,equipment isolation, speaker placement, tube selection etc ,,, hall ambience has come out to an astounding level. So much so that seated anywhere close to the sweet spot, you do feel surrounded by the music.

Your a lucky man. It's amazing that something as remote as equipment isolation would have an effect (placebo, maybe?) on ambiance. I maintain my point that anyone so enslaved to two channel would have been equally enslaved to mono. Audio of the high-end persuasion is going nowhere fast since there are too may sacred cows and belief in voodoo.