[Howard Ferstler]

William Sommerwerck wrote:
"That's too much echo... echo... echo... Turn it off... off.. off..." --
Stan Freberg, "Heartbreak Hotel".

Twenty years ago, JVC and Yamaha made consumer reverb units whose programs
were modeled after specific churches, concert halls, and other performance
venues. If you're trying to produce a natural sense of reverbererberation,
this sort of device is what you want.

You should be looking for a Yamaha DSP-1, DSP-3000, JVC XP-A1000, XP-A1010.
I don't remember if the DSP-1 has a digital input; the other models do. The
DSP-1 requires its remote control and is useless without it. The others can
be operated from their front panels but it's a bit clumsy and inconvenient
to do so.

All offer four outputs, two rear and two side. The programs are adjustable,
to match the sound of the synthesized reverb to the ambience of the
recording.

They sometimes show up on eBay. The Yamaha DSP-1 is fairly common, the
others less so. I recently bought a JVC XP-A1010 as a backup to the XP-A1000
I already own. (I also have a Yamaha DSP-3000 and Lexicon CP-3plus.)

You should always run the ambience through added speakers. You should
_never_ mix it with the original. It screws up the sound quite badly.

I agree about not mixing any additional reverb into the main
channels. There will usually already be enough recorded
reverb already.

The later DSP-A3090 and DSP-A1 integrated amps work well,
too, as does the still later RX-Z1 receiver, although having
their own amps built in kind of limits their flexibility
with complex audio set ups. I assume that the latest RX-Z9
version also does well, although I have never reviewed the
unit. I reviewed the other devices in issues 65 (Sept/Oct,
1997), 72 (Nov/Dec, 1998, and also reviewed the Lexicon DC-1
in that issue), and 93 (Dec, 2002/Jan, 2003) of The Sensible
Sound.

The three Yamaha units mentioned above have a
"Classical/Opera" mode that I find superior to the various
"hall" and "club" simulation modes. While those do not
include a center feed, Classical/Opera does, and it gets the
center info via the usual Dolby Surround, L+R "derived"
center circuitry in the units. Normally, I find the center
feed a tad too loud when it comes to producing a faux center
from a two-channel source, but backing off the center level
about 3 dB widens the soundstage back up and the result
works particularly well if the listener is sitting somewhere
but the sweet spot.

The hall-simulation surround ambiance generated by the
Classical/Opera mode varies in loudness between the three
units mentioned, and with both the DSP-A1 and RX-Z1 I find
it best to back off the surround effects levels by about 3
dB, compared to what the set-up menu offers for the global
movie-sound set-up level. The units make this easy to do,
and the settings can be fixed for any of the surround modes.

I also find that the two front "effects" channels work
better with the front "effects" speakers not in the front
corners as Yamaha recommends, but moved further down the
side walls, and aimed across the room at each other and not
out into the listening area. Also, rather than locate the
rear surround speakers in the back corners as Yamaha
suggests, I find that they work better also mounted on the
side walls, perhaps ten degrees behind directly to the sides.

In all cases, the wider dispersing the surround speakers are
the better they perform. Also, I find that a wider room
(with a long front wall) works better than a narrow one. One
exception involves the Lexicon processor I reviewed, which
works at its best in a shoebox-shaped room, with the
main-channel speakers on the shorter wall.

Howard Ferstler