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MultiChannel too complicated for most...

I've been on the gon for a little while now, posting and enjoying all the spectacular virtual systems. There is one thing I've noticed though. It's that many seem to associate the terms 2 channel and simple, especially when heading and detailing their virtual systems. I don't see it too often in threads, but every now and again it'll show up their as well.

Me being the multichannel guy I am, this small and most times overlooked detail seemed to jump out at me. Its been a passing thought for a while, but seems to be a somewhat valid question.

Now...before I go any further, this is not in insight a riot and bombard the moderators with request to have this thread pulled because it "potentially offends" 2 channel lovers. This is not that kind of posting, but just posing a question that has crossed my mind more times that one.

Do 2channel only audiophiles shun multichannel (discrete or DSP based) because they find it too complicated?

If the concept of thinking in 360 degrees (Multichannel) were simplified, for a lack of better terms, would multichannel be more accepted?
cdwallace
paracrine
8 posts
 
I’ve always interpreted the word simple in system listings to circuit design.
Less is more philosophy in audio circuit design often means better components, capacitors, resistors, transformers, diodes, switches, relays, exc.
One only needs to look at the internals tube or SS of a simple system and see what Im talking about. Multi-channel systems are difficult for manufactures to keep cost down using expensive high tolerance parts in their design, which is often quite complex to those of a simple 2 channel system.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
It is not simple or cheap to get a multichannel system set up right, and not all MC discs realize the potential of the media. For music the 5.1 speaker array, designed for movies is not ideal. The 2+2+2 array (see www.222sound.ch) is better. Too bad that audiophiles in this country won't support it. Blame the WAF. One surprisingly large genre of music, antiphonal, simply cannot be reproduced without MC.
jeffreybehr's avatar
jeffreybehr
805 posts
 
Those who write they don't like multichannel (NOT multi-channel) music don't indicate what kind of music they prefer. I absolutely LOVE the new MC recordings of Classical music. They really do enhance the (artificial, of course) feeling of being in the hall with the musicians. Except in very rare cases, there's only ambient hall sound in the surround channels, and I use diffuse-sounding speakers for that--see my System.

My system is not complex, with a multidisc player, a 6-channel preamp, and several poweramps and speakers, but one piece of it, the conrad-johnson 6-channel tubed preamp, is expensive. I guess it's complicated in the sense that it has far more pieces of IC and speakercable and more channels of amplification--10--than most 2-channel systems, but I've managed to figure it out, and I'm sure the vast majority of 2-channel lovers, too, could.

I combined my audio and video systems a few years ago, and this not-as-good-as-2-plus-2-plus-2 5.1-channel system sounds not just good but FABULOUS, TYVM. :-)
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shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Do 2channel only audiophiles shun multichannel (discrete or DSP based) because they find it too complicated?

I'm with Paracrine.

Audiophiles are normal people that want something differentiated for their music system, they are not immune to the logic of purity and simplicity, which is a marketing spin that is pushed heavily by the high end manufacturers. Often this is all about how high end audio chooses to differentiate; popular manifestations are designs with LESS features than low end audio and by packaging this in an impressive, imposing product with a new model number each year or two, and few, if any, LED lights/displays (synonymous with low end). These clearly visible external features and new model number are intended to be correlated by the buyer to the hidden significantly differentiated sound of the box/component. This all combines to propagate the widely held view that a DSP can't possibly play two channel as well as a dedicated two channel amp.
tom_hankins
928 posts
 
If I had the money to have both 2 channel and multi channel systems at the level I want my 2 channel.
I would own both.
Unfortunatly there is no way I am going to invest $$$$$$$ into MC music, when I can use that same money to make my 2 channel even better than it is now.
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