Interesting article on "stereo" sound.

[gmed]

http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/ultimate-tech/true_stereo/

what do you think?

[Deward Hastings]

http://blog.ultimateavmag.com/ultima...h/true_stereo/

what do you think?

Mostly bogus marketing hype? From the first paragraph (search "stereoscope" for a much more likely progenitor of the word "stereophonic") to the last ("holographic" images do not require myriad light sources) it's lots of buzz words and not much reality. And the drive for all those speakers is going to be generated from a two channel source using . . . Pro Tools and "metadata" (acquired from where?)?

Just a wild guess, but this isn't coming to *my* living room any time soon . . .

There are more practical ways to create the "stereo" illusion.

[dsrviola]

Deward, there's no mention in the article of this being intended for home use. It does say, "Designed primarily for commercial cinema and other public-venue applications..."

What marketing hype are you referring to? It's just a journalist reporting some information he was given as well as relaying his experience of the demonstration they gave.

I think being in a theater that had this type of audio set up might make for an exhilarating viewing experience.

[JTR]

No sweet spot?

The one thing that bothered me was the remark of having the entire room as the sweet spot.
I believe that there's no amount of speakers you can fill a room with on walls that will truely get rid of the sweet spot for everyone inside. As with ordinary 2 channel stereo, phantom sources will move when you move between the sound sources.

The only way I see it to create a real 3D experience is to have the sound sourced at the location itself. Maybe it can be done by using a matrix of ceiling and floor speakers for "in room" sound and the array of wall speakers for the "outside room" sound.
A practical problem would be balancing each pair of floor and ceiling speakers to create the height of the phantom source though.

I suddenly think I remembered having seen a spherical contraption with speakers and a single chair in the centre on a research site once.

[Deward Hastings]

I suddenly think I remembered having seen a spherical contraption with speakers and a single chair in the centre on a research site once.

You'd still need a corresponding array of hyper-cardiod mics also arranged in a sphere, and as many independent channels as there are mics/speakers . . . unless the thing is just another exercise in "see what I can do when I turn the pan-pot" . . .

I suspect it's another of those "just because you *can* build it doesn't mean you *should* build it" things . . .

[clubdye_048]

No Way...! Give me two channel STEREO over this overly driven hype crap any day! :E