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How to get multichannel sound from a CD?

I was at a friend's place recently and heard him play CDs through his new Linar multichannel amp, which has the ability to direct part of the stereo signal to the back speakers. The effect was surprisingly good: spatiality and power increased, without any apparent damage to sound quality (as long as the rears were not too loud!).

This got me thinking: Rather than wait forever for the major labels to start releasing good quality multichannel recordings in SACD or DVD-A, why not explore ways to get extra spatiality out of my existing large CD collection?

So I'm looking to find out what options exist for doing this. I'm just gathering info at this point, so any tips you have are of interest--a bonus would be your comments on how good it sounds, but just hearing about an option is good too.

Note that I do care very much about sound quality issues such as timbre, tonality, musicality. The best options for converting CD to multichannel will do minimal/no damage to essential sound quality, but will add spatiality.

So far I know about the following:
-The Linar amps, and maybe other multichannel amps, that just direct the sound to the back
-the Meridian 861 processor has a mode for this. Super expensive, supposed to be good.
-the McCormack universal player has a mode also. Stereophile seemed to like it a bit less than the Meridian for this purpose, but it costs a lot less.
-I think DTS has a processing mode in some receivers which can do this (I'm not much of a home theater guy, no receiver in my system, so I'm sure many of you will know more than I about this).

Any others you guys know about?
calanctus
cinematic_systems
282 posts
 
Best way to do it;

Trifield from a Meridian processor.

Dolby Prologic II depending on the pre/pro receiver is also very effective, just a little too live in the rears to be absolutely convincing. The music playback capacity of a prepro is the best way to seperate the good from the ugly.

DTS Neo.....sucks

5 channel stereo, like using a dull knife to cut tomatoes.

I don't listen in two channel unless I am forced too.
If you want some more advice just email me because the 2 channel guys are going to undoubtably chime in with their opinion on how lofi surround is. One day they will come around. That day has not come yet.
calanctus OP
151 posts
 
Thanks for responses so far...some interesting info.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,662 posts
 
BTW, it ain't the McCormack universal player that has this but, rather, the McCormack MAP-1 preamp. I use it mostly for TV audio but still play CDs in 2channel and SACDs/DVD-As in surround.

Most current A/V pre/pros and receivers have several options but the best seem to be the Logic7 (Lexicon, HK?, others?) and the Meridian TriField options.

Kal
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
What we are talking about is "matrix multichannel". With most any surround decoding system, Dolby, DTS, etc. signal that is out of phase between the two channels goes to the rear speakers. This is very damatic if you play a Test rrecording that has material recorded inphase, and out-of-phase for phasing check purposes.

The effectiveness when playing music depends entirely on how the particular recording was mixed. Some stereo recordings that were never intended for multichannel playback are, by accident, dramatic. Most don't work very well. There is no way to tell except to try them.
gregmacknass2
17 posts
 
I am using 5 channel stereo using my Yamaha reciever's speaker
outputs as the input on my amplifiers. I personally auditioned
a couple of Dennon recievers at my local hi-fi store and was not that impressed with their sound in 5 channel stereo, plus the Yamaha had better options such as the speaker outputs are switchable (via switch on the back) between 4 and 8 ohms, 30 modes of DSP,higher power rating 100w/ch, and a better price.
All of these were deciding factors in purchasing this reciever. The sound I am getting from my setup it amazing. I hope this gives you some ideas.
Greg
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