SACD vs DVD-A speaker set-up geometry

Kr4 is correct as to what is recommended. However, few people can arrange their rooms exactly as specified. Also, bipole/dipole speakers work fine. As always, speaker type and placement makes a difference, but IMHO there is no hard and fast "right answer".

The best set ups use 2 speakers unless you like gimmicky sounding and unnatural sounds of guitars and drums ect coming from the rears or sides were they DO NOT belong.

And speaker quality or type makes no difference unless you like this gimmick to begin whith imo.

Until the time that musicians start playing live all around you, this will remain a gimmick whith a few exceptions like DSOTM ect which were made for ss imo.

Despite Ears' cynical comment, music is almost always appreciated in an ambient situation. It simply depends on whether you can abide the synthetic ambience of a good listening room or prefer the real ambience of the performance space. Gimmicks referred to are beneath comment.

Kal

Ears...Antiphonal music has been around for centuries, but until now could not be recorded properly. Classical chamber music is sometimes performed "in the round" especially in small private performances. Many people have performed in orchestras, or chiors, and find the perspective of being in the midst of the performers to be natural.

Can it be a "gimmick"? Sure: but not always.

Eldartford-

I was not speaking of music written for antiphonal or other spatial effects to be 'gimmicks' but was referring, specifically, to the previously-mentioned random placement of guitars and drums in the rear.

Have you heard the Telarc Berlioz Requiem? Not a gimmick.

Kal