DVD-Audiobahn

Posted by HiFi Connasewer on January 31, 2003 at 17:49:31

In Reply to: Why not 4.0 or 4.1? posted by mcp on January 31, 2003 at 13:14:14:

IMO unless your front main speakers totally suck, a center channel just isn't needed. As others have aleady said, its diffcult to find a center to perfectly match the mains, and horizontal dispersion problems (also known as "lobing") are common. There are a few 3-way centers with vertical tweeter/midbass arrays that address this problem, but they are rare & usually expensive (exception: JBL does sell one with this at Best Buy for @$300). And trying to place a center channel properly isn't always an option.

Subwoofer? Hmm, can be advantageous & fun sometimes, but trying to blend it with the other channels accurately is very tricky. Movie explosions are one thing (i.e. "accurate" explosions?) but to me music bass is a whole other level.

EMI obviously likes (or likED) this idea too: At Best Buy they sell two classical discs Handel: Fireworks, and Bach: Magnificat. Just plain old 4 channel, with a stereo track included:

• EMI dvd-audios at classicalcdreview.com