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In Reply to: RE: Surround sound for the hard of hearing posted by David Aiken on December 22, 2008 at 13:09:40
I don't believe this is a situation where you want to begin making a large $ investment. From the tone of his comments, it looks more like he's trying to compensate for their hearing loss -- not bedazzle them with the world of surround sound. Ironically, in their situation, more speakers = more chaos = more disconnect with what's really the point of the movie/show/whatever that's unfolding in front of them.
As for adding a Center speaker, many people prefer to use no Center and instead have their receiver send the Center information to both speakers in a stereo setup. Voila, the dialogue's "centered" and you still have stereo sound with one less speaker to buy and (over, in this case) calibrate. And while I agree that more channels, even a limited version of more channels, is a direction that would seem to enhance the movie experience, it sounds to me like the focus is on compensating for hearing loss on a (low $) budget. Of course, I could be wrong...
Then there's this angle. Feeding $ to a receiver/speaker setup only helps in the home: what about the rest of the hours in the day and other situations outside the home? I wonder if anything has been done in the way of hearing aids, miracle ears, etc. If not, isn't this in a way giving them a fish instead of a fishing pole?
Follow Ups:
I know a lot of people like a phantom centre but I don't find voices sound as clear to me with a phantom centre as they do when there is a proper centre channel. I'd rather have the physical centre channel any day, provided it's a good tonal match to the other speakers. I've still got more than enough hearing to be concerned about tonal matching.
I certainly agree with the rest of your comments about cost benefit, and they become more compelling the greater the hearing loss becomes. We had no idea from the original post just how old the parents were or how bad their hearing was so I attempted to provide some sense of how a response could be scaled to the problem, from a minimalist start for those with minor hearing loss to a more extensive approach to the issue as the problem worsens with age, as it tends to do.
David Aiken
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