Surround sound?

[dave2010]

Average surround sound does not compare well with good stereo. However it is clear that stereo cannot have the capability of a multi-channel system. Does anyone have experience of really good surround systems? Each channel would really have to have the quality level of the channels in a stereo system.

What kind of budget would be required to make such a system work, and is there a sufficient number of good recordings to make it worthwhile?

[Macca]

Hi Dave

A pal of mine has a 7.2 system using B&W speakers (683 floorstanders for the fronts) and 2 velodyne active motion controlled subs driven by an Onkyo a/v amp - speakers subs and amp cost around £6K. (plus a 60'' plasma and instalation total cost was £14K).

He doesn't play much music (but he likes his films at THX reference volume and consequently now has tinnitus) but I have tried this system with hi rez surround sound recordings (SACD and HD DVD) decoded by the amp - it's fun and different for a while but if it was my £14K I'd have bought a cheaper telly, a quality 2 channel amp and some big Tannoys.

Hope this is of some help

[The Vinyl Adventure]

i played project gotham city on a £500,000 suround soud system once...

these were the fronts

http://www.higherfi.com/spkrlist/dynaudio_evidence_master.jpg

it was pretty special .... but it wasnt as good as the £100,000 stereo system in the next room

[John]

Awhile I back I heard a 70's receiver doing quadraphonic sound it had a lot of depth and ambiance

[Themis]

Hi Dave, I've a couple of things to say about surround, often the same, I'm afraid:

First of all, the most important thing in surround is the center speaker. It is responsible for about half the overall perceived quality. You need to pay extra attention to this speaker which -ideally- should be of the same brand and model as the front speakers.

Secondly, the subwoofer integration : you'll need to go through a lot of try&fail to get the right integration with the rest of the speakers. A good start here is the auto-calibration of the surround amplifier. Not perfect, but a good start.

Third, and not last, in most cases you'll probably need a separate power amplification for the front L/R speakers. Unless you have a dedicated 5x amp with lots of power this is something you'll end up needing : bare it in mind.

Lastly, imho there are not a lot of recordings (except some live ones), but you need surround for A/V. ;)

[Macca]

You also need a co-operative room. My pal formentioned has his 7 channel set up in a 25' by 12' room with a single reclining chair placed almost half way down. If you have odd angles, alcoves, corners, multiple doorways and are limited in where you can listen from in the room then the whole thing becomes a lot harder to get right.

[hifi_dave]

A while back, as a shop, we did very up-market surround sound/home cinema and sold a few systems up to £30-40K or so.

Obviously, they did the film bit very well which was fine if you enjoy being in the centre of a war, which I don't. I found it very disconcerting and uneasy.

As for music, they didn't do too well even though some of the gear was supposed to be optimised to reproduce music as good as a music only system.
Even the best could be bettered by a couple of Grands worth of Hi-Fi and I really couldn't get on with the discs which placed you in the centre of the band. Horrid.

A few of the big Home Cinema spenders have actually gone back to tube based, record playing systems and flogged the AV kit.

Strange old world...:rolleyes:

[Macca]

A while back, as a shop, we did very up-market surround sound/home cinema and sold a few systems up to £30-40K or so.

Obviously, they did the film bit very well which was fine if you enjoy being in the centre of a war, which I don't. I found it very disconcerting and uneasy.

As for music, they didn't do too well even though some of the gear was supposed to be optimised to reproduce music as good as a music only system.
Even the best could be bettered by a couple of Grands worth of Hi-Fi and I really couldn't get on with the discs which placed you in the centre of the band. Horrid.

A few of the big Home Cinema spenders have actually gone back to tube based, record playing systems and flogged the AV kit.

Strange old world...:rolleyes:

Interesting as our last independant local dealer moved from their city-centre shop a couple of years back to an industrial unit on the outskirts and now (I think) only do expensive Home Cinema installations (my mate used them - apparantly his £14K spend was quite small beer to them).

[Marco]

Hi Hamish,


i played project gotham city on a £500,000 suround soud system once...

these were the fronts

http://www.higherfi.com/spkrlist/dynaudio_evidence_master.jpg

it was pretty special .... but it wasnt as good as the £100,000 stereo system in the next room

Your pic's not showing up here, matey.... You'll probably need to host it on Photobucket or Imageshack, rather than through the 'higherfi' website :)

Marco.

[zygote23]

I have a 7.1/2 system. Yamaha ax-763 amp and a Monitor Audio Bronze centre with six monitor audio radius 45 surround speakers. The sub is some Jamo thing a mate has loaned me on perm loan.

The speakers are thrown around the room and connected up with the cheapest 12p a metre cable. The xbox and sony bdp are connected up with cheapo hdmi.

It sounds great for movies and the few surround music dvd's I have. In particular Klaus Schulze - Rheingold.

I've yet to find a dvd or blu ray that has a 7.1 sound track other than Hellboy 2 and Dark city so the rear surround speakers are mostly redundant and will be shifted to the pc later I'd imagine.

If you want exceptional home cinema.....move into a multiplex ;)

For music I'll stick to the stereo ;)

[Techno Commander]

I stick with stereo for watching movies. My speakers have good enough sound staging to make the voices appear as though they are coming from the TV and have enough bass not to require a sub.

Although I do have a pair of 15" JBL's "just in case". ;)