Video Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on December 26, 2009 at 12:47:54

In Reply to: RE: Very basic question: we have a vintage 2-channel system in our posted by tinear on December 26, 2009 at 11:18:01

First I don't have an HT room, the TV is in the lounge, but my games with the TV over the last few years may shed some light on one person's view on your question.

Several years ago I added a stereo system to the TV and thought the sound got considerably better than the TV's own speakers. Some time after that I upgraded the 2 channel receiver I was using to a Denon 7.1 channel receiver in order to get the Audyssey room EQ feature, something that certainly made a difference in the rather reflective living room the TV is located in. I moved my sub from the audio system to the TV system and started running 2.1 sound. Having the surround sound capability led me to experiment with adding a spare pair of speakers in as side surrounds over Christmas a couple of years ago. This was only intended as a fun thing to do for a few days over the Christmas break since the right surround speaker went right in the middle of the "traffic path" for walking to the hallway to the rest of the house.

I was surprised at how much more enjoyment I got from the surrounds so they actually ended up becoming permanent and were followed at various stages by a centre and a single rear surround to make it a 6.1 system which I found quite impressive since all of the speakers were basically capable of full range sound down to 40 Hz or below.

Starting around the middle of this year I've started removing speakers. The first to go was the rear surround, dropping back to 5.1. That made a very small difference. The next to go were the side surrounds, dropping things back to 3.1. That made a bigger difference but not as big a difference as I expected it to make. 3.1 still gives you a very good movie experience with a lot of movies. I find the absence of the surrounds more noticeable on action movies which tend to use the surrounds in order to immerse you in the middle of the sound effects which can be quite involving. I actually spent quite a bit of time deciding whether or not to remove the side surrounds but in the end I did so simply to avoid the problem I had with the right surround in the middle of the "traffic path" because I'd gotten tired of having to walk around it every time I moved from the front of the house to the back of the house. If I'd had the system in a separate HT room, the surrounds would still be there.

I really enjoy surround sound and that surprised me when I first added the 2 surround speakers for a fun experiment. I hadn't expected to get such a kick from them or to end up wanting to keep them but I did. Given the real kick I got from adding them, I've been a little surprised that I've been not too put out by their loss.

If I had the TV setup in a separate room, I would certainly go 5.1 again in a flash, no doubt about it. The big problem with surround from my perspective is simply that it takes a lot of space to set up well and that's a problem if you're trying to do it in an open plan living room as I was, but if you have a HT room with the space, then I'd say go for it, especially if you enjoy action movies. They may certainly not be high art but they can be incredible fun with a good surround setup.

On the other hand, if you don't have the space, a good quality stereo system can be extremely enjoyable. In my view there are advantages to using a surround receiver with a stereo system because you can then use a sub and make the most of the LFE channel in the soundtrack and I think that adding a centre speaker is also an advantage because it helps with the clarity of dialog plus ties the voices to their apparent on-screen source a bit better than stereo does so I think 3.1 is better than 2.1 or straight 2.0 stereo.

So bottom line for me is that I think surround is great if you have the space and I'd go back there in a hurry if I did, given my taste in movies which tends towards the action and sci-fi side of things. If my taste were mainly vintage classics from the 60's and earlier with stereo or mono soundtracks only, I'd probably prefer stereo. If you don't have the space or you simply have a desire for simplicity, then going the best quality stereo you can do can be very satisfying.



David Aiken