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Re: Impressions of Surround Sound...

Posted by John C. - Aussie (A) on December 30, 2001 at 12:06:23

In Reply to: Impressions of Surround Sound... posted by Estes on December 29, 2001 at 17:37:10:

It is good to read you have the SH500 set up satisfactorily. I tried a used one a couple of years ago. It was faulty so went back for repair (bought from a dealer) but I never could coax good sound from it :-(

To answer your question re surround sound - yes it can be great. However IMO DD 5.1 is over rated and Dolby Pro logic can be just about as effective. I have not decoded DTS so cannot comment on that.

I fully agree re the importance of the sub but disagree re the centre channel. For some time I regarded it as redundant but now concede that properly set up it is very important as a huge amount of energy goes through it. My observations -

* the centre channel speaker(s) must match the characteristics of the stereo pair or the sound will be disjointed and odd

* if anything, the centre channel must have a little more power reserve than the stereo amps as so much speech, action etc comes through them

Surround sound not only increases enjoyment of movies but can be used judiciously to enhance a few 2 ch recordings although not all processors can do this satisfactorily. Surround sound also increases the musical illusion on DVDs & LDs with music content - ballets, concerts, operas etc. One of these days I'll dabble in surround hi rez audio but am still fence sitting at the moment.

John

Peace at AA

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