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RE: Stereo vs. multichannel: what are your thoughts on this statement (inside).

I like the realistic soundstage, the phantom center channel I get (vivid center image) as opposed to the "center of the band" or "instruments coming from all sides" effects of arbitrary surround algorithms that really have nothing to do with the reverb times of the original venue.

Surround is great for movies, but for music the surround effects are usually just annoying. Some like the "envelopment" but at live concerts I don't find myself enveloped by sound - rather you get a sense of colaboration between the visual elements of the venue (distance to walls, materials used for wall and floor coverings) and the sonics of the venue. When you hear music in a large concert hall, the sound (and reflected sounds) make sense for the kind of venue and seating position. I think it has to do with our sensitivity to phase/timing differences between our ears and how this relates to what we see. (This goes back to our hearing system having these features for determining the origin of sounds that are emanating from some animal or threat which helps us to react in a life-preserving manner).

But to take a 2-channel recording and add a bunch of channel matrixing and delay effects is not to come closer to the original venue, it's just adding a bunch of delays and giving a SENSE of spatiality. This may be IMPRESSIVE but for many folks it's sort of a novelty and for others still, like myself, it's just downright annoying.

As for subjective "spatiality", I find I enjoy watching concerts in 2.0 or 2.1 a lot better than the 5/6/7.1 mixes, which very often take too many liberties with instrument placement. This is especially true when audience sounds are recorded in rear channels (which is fine - it gives you that in the audience feel) but then INSTRUMENTS come from back there as well.

In the Eagles Hells Freezes over, you get half the band sitting in row 22 and you're in row 13. Why are they sitting back there if on the screen they are on stage? Apparently recording engineers TRIED to use multichannel recording platforms for capturing venue acoustics, but most consumer level users found this to be a sort of boring use for multichannel. They too wanted that "enveloped, middle of the band effect". So that is what most multichannel mixes are now like IMHO, which is why I really don't care for most of them.

I think liking the "middle of band / enveloped" surround mixes is fine. But to say arbitrary surround DSP algorithms that make spacey positional effects are superior to well recorded and reproduced stereo is not just a stretch, it's rather silly.

For this reason I listen to all music DVD's in 2.1, all stereo in 2.0 or 2.1 and all movies in their NATIVE surround format. I never use DSP algorithms for anything, ever. Never used one. Friends have brought me over to hear their new 7.1 channel A/V units and keep flipping from "bathroom" to "church" to "sport stadium" to "concert hall". The reverb effects are downright annoying and soon friends are asking me how to get their system sounding good. First thing I tell them is to disable all DSP algorithms and listen to concert DVD's in PCM2.0 and watch movies in their NATIVE surround format aka - set their AV unit to "auto" and let it decode what is there on the disc.

Cheers,
Presto

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