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In Reply to: Re: Parvi Dvorak 9th-Telarc "House Sound"? posted by Ted Smith on March 24, 2007 at 12:00:58:
I don't see a disagreement.I said:
****I have found that multi-channel recordings that don’t utilize a center channel, or that underutilize the center channel do not have this solidity/wide sweet spot attribute.****
You said:****In my experience the center channel is irrelevant to a solid soundstage IF you are listening from the sweet spot.****
I agree with what you have said. Completely.
I have found that the sweet spot is less of an issue with a well-done center channel. I find the soundstage to be more solid over a wider area with a good center channel mix. The sweet spot is broader. That is, you can sit a bit left or right of the "traditional sweet" spot with minimal or no sound degradation. Although, as I mentioned I always sit in the traditional sweet spot regardless. Without a center channel, I have found the sweet spot to be much more critical.
You also said:
****I often have to mute the left or right speakers or solo the center to show people that the sound is really not coming from the center.****
I have had the same or similar experience with a variety of speakers for years, beginning with the Ohm F in the 70s. When playing two channels new listeners insist that I must have a speaker hidden in the fireplace that is in between and behind the speakers. They consistently get up to look for it. Or since I have had multi-channel they will think for sure that music is coming from the middle speaker when it is completely off. Likewise with a multi-channel recording that has no center mix they (and yours truly) will be fooled into thinking that music is coming from the center channel when it is not active. (I didn't realize that Telarc's Mahler 5 (Zander) center channel was practically mute until Robert88 [I think]made mention of it). In the case of a multi-channel recording with no center channel this allusion can collapse if you wander from traditional the sweet spot.
And yes let me make it clear, my observations are limited solely to my experiences in my system. Like everything else in audio experiences will vary from system to system and then from room to room (which I would venture to say has a lot more effect than audio cables in my experience). In the case of the center channel a lot may depend, also, how it is being utilized in a particular mix as to whether it is important or not.
While we are on the topic of do you know the purpose of the center channel in SACD? (In that the center channel seems to have a completely different use than in HT).
Follow Ups:
To this day though if I could only take one of these two to the island with me to listen to for the rest of my lifetime, I'd probably lose a bit of sleep the night before! :)I do well remember your post beforehand about comparing these two recordings which be the obvious thing most folks would inquire about for the 9th on SACD whether it be MCH or two channel. When I have the opportunity, I'll have to listen to some of the movements again on my systems. It may just be entirely a preference thing however for an individual to choose one over the other as each present a wow factor for sound and a each include a very very good performance.
Regarding the Zander Mahler 5th, his 6th absolutely blows it away in my opinion and I feel one of the reasons is because of the use of the center. The 6th is one of the best MCH recordings for the sense of aliveness that I own!
HowdyI must have misunderstood you :)
Since video still matters to me my center is not at the same height as my left and right speakers and they are perfectly capable of handling the power I'm tempted to get my preamp modded to split the center channel inputs evenly into the left and right speakers. I suspect that then I'd have better sound both because my phantom center would match the left and right better and I'd be able to make my ITU circle just a little bigger which I think also could help.
And quite daring.
Regards,
Geoff
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