In the multi-channel world of Dolby Digital 7.1 surround speakers and surround sound, we don't often stop to question what is it exactly that we're looking for (or more accurately, listening for) when we judge how good a surround sound speaker system sounds as it plays back our favorite movies and music.
Are we looking for a "faithful re-creation" of a musical event by our home stereo or surround systems, as if we were hearing it in the very concert hall or club or studio where it was recorded? Or are we looking for a plausible illusion of musicians in our living room?
Most of us would agree we're after a believable representation of a musical event, not a literal re-creation necessarily, with the appropriate directional and spatial cues and natural musical sounds that let us believe we might be hearing it live. We don't actually want to hear the sounds of vibrating cell phones next to us, or the air conditioning coming on during a quiet passage - but we do want to get that right-there-in-the-audience feeling of being there.
Getting realistic reproduction involves being literally enveloped in sound, and more and more people are adding a two extra surround speakers to get that center-of-the-action feeling they crave.
What was the evolution of this hunt for the ultimate in realistic playback? How did engineers decide that surround sound was more realistic than two-channel playback, and what made them continue on to 5.1-channel surround sound and eventually 7.1 surround speaker systems?
Continue reading: 7.1 Surround Speakers: How Many Channels Are Necessary for Faithful Recreation?
