Do you ...Center Channel?

I could live without it for TV/HT but find it essential for MCH music.

Kal

Jack_dotson wrote: "I always use one for HT, but not for music unless listening for 5.1 SACD, which I normally listen to in two channel as well."

Well, of course. Why use a center speaker if there is no center channel signal?

OTOH, creating a phantom center when there is a discrete center signal creates inevitable phase/time errors in the process. This is noticeable even on-axis but mostly with music sources.

Kal

Markphd, I find your answer simplistic since the inventors of stereo (which means solid) found that it required a minimum of three channels across the front but, due to the technical limitations of the media of the time, only two were used in the commercial applications. There is a need for a good center channel, even if one sits in the "sweet spot," because the center signal information limits the spatial resolution to the sides.

This is not to say that 2channel stereo cannot be impressive and satisfying.

Kal

05-29-07: Slikric3000 wrote: "Nope I dont have a center ear. 1 speaker for each ear is all I can handle."

I miss your smiley. Otherwise, this is a common and silly idea.

Kal

05-29-07: Shadorne

OTOH, creating a phantom center when there is a discrete center signal creates inevitable phase/time errors in the process. This is noticeable even on-axis but mostly with music sources.

Really? How?
----------------------------------------------------------

The 'phantoming' is a purely algebraic process in which the center information is electrically split between the L and R channels. As a result, sounds which reached the center microphone at a different time than they reached either the right or left are now combined into a simultaneous signal and reproduced from a single speaker. Such center sounds will be reproduced from an inappropriate distance and/or the incorrect time and they will also interact, electrically, with similar (but significantly different) signals in the left or right channel resulting in unpredictable summation/cancellations.

Kal

If your speakers are set up for multichannel, the left and right are too far apart for stereo. With a 2-channel source like a CD you must come up with a center signal/speaker, or be faced with moving speakers around when playing a stereo recording.

Or move your seat. ;-)

Kal

kr4 = Kal Rubinson

Yes. The ICBM is usable in almost any configuration you might want.

Kal

Really? It is an analog device specifically because it can take multiple analog inputs and bass manage them. That's all! There is no matrixing or other processing included or needed.

Any DSP device to accomplish the same or more would require additional A/D/A conversions which would be redundant and compromising.

Now, if you can come up with a DSP-based bass management accessory that will handle CD, DVD, SACD and DVD-A sources, let us know.

Kal

The whole ICBM issue begs the question about deriving a center channel since it will not do that nor, I think, does Baam23f think it does. The ICBM is sorta off-topic in this thread.

In the (near) future, when all MCH formats can be transferred as digital signals to AVRs and pre/pros, this will become less and less of an issue. In fact, Outlaw has discontinued the ICBM in recognition of the declining need for it. That said, I do not believe there is another product that will do the same job, except the MartinSound ManagerMAX. Certainly, no digital device is available, AFAIK.

And I do agree with you about the relative transparency of the A/D/A conversions if done well. For example, SACDs fed into the 24/96 A/D inputs of my Meridian 861 still sound excellent. But, frankly, the A/D conversions of most AVRs are not to that standard, in my experience.

Kal