"Trevor Wilson" wrote in
:


"Dave Ryman" wrote in message
.4...
"Trevor Wilson" wrote in
:


"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 19:04:49 GMT, "Trevor Wilson"
wrote:


"Dave Ryman" wrote in message
. 1.4...
(snip)
**That may be true, but:

* A single power supply may allow all channels to be able
draw on a significantly larger energy reserve, thus providing
superior 'headroom'. * A single power transformer may be less
expensive to buy and implement, than 5 small trannies.



I'm not convinced I need a 1.5k tranny anymore - I'm going
right back
to
scratch again on the design.

**Fair enough. I don't listen to that new-fangled surround sound
****.

Really? You don't like live concerts? :-)

**Sure. I just don't listen to surround sound ****.



Right - I have a decent surround-sound system in my house. A big
Yamaha amp. When I play a DVD or Video, I use the appropriate
surround program. When I listen to Music, I use a program called
"Cellar club" - this simply enriches the sound with an extrapolated
rear channels. Being good quality, it sounds good, even with music.
The important thing is that the amplification is clean, responsive
and gives a faithful reproduction.

**No. The important thing is that, as well as clean amplification and
decent speakers, that the source material is of the highest quality.
Surround sound (except for the very lmited number of SACD and DVD-A
discs) is crap. Compressed, compromised crap. Except for some SACD and
DVD-A recordings, all other surround sound schemes destroy musical
information. Decent stereo leaves it for dead.




As I said before, it depends a lot on context: Different things very
often need different treatment - playing a game on the PC wants surround
processing, and doesn't need an awful lot of clarity. Playing music needs
as much clarity as you can muster. However, not all sources are perfect,
so we have to accept that an MP3 is not as pure as a well mastered CD.
Hence music played from a PC can be jiggered around with by the soundcard
and software (to a point!) without offending the listener, because the
listener is not expecting a truly pure sound anyway. In the case of a
GOOD surround amp, such as the Yamaha, there are many "programs" which
muck with the music and reduce the quality - but used correctly it is a
very competant amp. For example, some "surround" effects are dealing with
the bass, some are producing what is essentially a small echo, and some
are extrapolating extra channels. In a perfect world of perfect rooms
with perfect wooden floors and no soft furnishings, we can reproduce
sound through a single mono power-amp and say "wow": In an unperfect
world, we very often need to compensate for the size, shape or materials
in the room. The fact that the Yamaha engineers developed a lot of their
DSP technology in the concert hall where they were providing the sound
systems speaks volumes.

For most "surround" systems, I would tend to agree with you - most are
crap. But don't tar all such systems with the same brush.

At the end of the day, I do not have the money to revelop my house into
an acoustically perfect concert hall and install two stereos (one "pure",
the other "surround") - both in different rooms to avoid colouration from
the extra speakers on the other system.

--
Regards,
Dave


http://welcome.to/daves.website
http://travel.to/formula.one

"Trevor Wilson" wrote in
:


"Dave Ryman" wrote in message
.4...
"Trevor Wilson" wrote in
:


"Stewart Pinkerton" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 19:04:49 GMT, "Trevor Wilson"
wrote:


"Dave Ryman" wrote in message
. 1.4...
(snip)
**That may be true, but:

* A single power supply may allow all channels to be able
draw on a significantly larger energy reserve, thus providing
superior 'headroom'. * A single power transformer may be less
expensive to buy and implement, than 5 small trannies.



I'm not convinced I need a 1.5k tranny anymore - I'm going
right back
to
scratch again on the design.

**Fair enough. I don't listen to that new-fangled surround sound
****.

Really? You don't like live concerts? :-)

**Sure. I just don't listen to surround sound ****.



Right - I have a decent surround-sound system in my house. A big
Yamaha amp. When I play a DVD or Video, I use the appropriate
surround program. When I listen to Music, I use a program called
"Cellar club" - this simply enriches the sound with an extrapolated
rear channels. Being good quality, it sounds good, even with music.
The important thing is that the amplification is clean, responsive
and gives a faithful reproduction.

**No. The important thing is that, as well as clean amplification and
decent speakers, that the source material is of the highest quality.
Surround sound (except for the very lmited number of SACD and DVD-A
discs) is crap. Compressed, compromised crap. Except for some SACD and
DVD-A recordings, all other surround sound schemes destroy musical
information. Decent stereo leaves it for dead.




As I said before, it depends a lot on context: Different things very
often need different treatment - playing a game on the PC wants surround
processing, and doesn't need an awful lot of clarity. Playing music needs
as much clarity as you can muster. However, not all sources are perfect,
so we have to accept that an MP3 is not as pure as a well mastered CD.
Hence music played from a PC can be jiggered around with by the soundcard
and software (to a point!) without offending the listener, because the
listener is not expecting a truly pure sound anyway. In the case of a
GOOD surround amp, such as the Yamaha, there are many "programs" which
muck with the music and reduce the quality - but used correctly it is a
very competant amp. For example, some "surround" effects are dealing with
the bass, some are producing what is essentially a small echo, and some
are extrapolating extra channels. In a perfect world of perfect rooms
with perfect wooden floors and no soft furnishings, we can reproduce
sound through a single mono power-amp and say "wow": In an unperfect
world, we very often need to compensate for the size, shape or materials
in the room. The fact that the Yamaha engineers developed a lot of their
DSP technology in the concert hall where they were providing the sound
systems speaks volumes.

For most "surround" systems, I would tend to agree with you - most are
crap. But don't tar all such systems with the same brush.

At the end of the day, I do not have the money to revelop my house into
an acoustically perfect concert hall and install two stereos (one "pure",
the other "surround") - both in different rooms to avoid colouration from
the extra speakers on the other system.

--
Regards,
Dave


http://welcome.to/daves.website
http://travel.to/formula.one