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MultiChannel too complicated for most...

I've been on the gon for a little while now, posting and enjoying all the spectacular virtual systems. There is one thing I've noticed though. It's that many seem to associate the terms 2 channel and simple, especially when heading and detailing their virtual systems. I don't see it too often in threads, but every now and again it'll show up their as well.

Me being the multichannel guy I am, this small and most times overlooked detail seemed to jump out at me. Its been a passing thought for a while, but seems to be a somewhat valid question.

Now...before I go any further, this is not in insight a riot and bombard the moderators with request to have this thread pulled because it "potentially offends" 2 channel lovers. This is not that kind of posting, but just posing a question that has crossed my mind more times that one.

Do 2channel only audiophiles shun multichannel (discrete or DSP based) because they find it too complicated?

If the concept of thinking in 360 degrees (Multichannel) were simplified, for a lack of better terms, would multichannel be more accepted?
cdwallace

Showing 2 responses by jeffreybehr

jeffreybehr's avatar
jeffreybehr
805 posts
 
Those who write they don't like multichannel (NOT multi-channel) music don't indicate what kind of music they prefer. I absolutely LOVE the new MC recordings of Classical music. They really do enhance the (artificial, of course) feeling of being in the hall with the musicians. Except in very rare cases, there's only ambient hall sound in the surround channels, and I use diffuse-sounding speakers for that--see my System.

My system is not complex, with a multidisc player, a 6-channel preamp, and several poweramps and speakers, but one piece of it, the conrad-johnson 6-channel tubed preamp, is expensive. I guess it's complicated in the sense that it has far more pieces of IC and speakercable and more channels of amplification--10--than most 2-channel systems, but I've managed to figure it out, and I'm sure the vast majority of 2-channel lovers, too, could.

I combined my audio and video systems a few years ago, and this not-as-good-as-2-plus-2-plus-2 5.1-channel system sounds not just good but FABULOUS, TYVM. :-)
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jeffreybehr's avatar
jeffreybehr
805 posts
 
"You suggest that 2-channel is like standing in an open doorway rather than in the theater. I find that much mc is like being in the center of the orchester and having a blanket over your head. You may know the music is all around you but it has no realism."

Wow--we sure do listen to different music AND you've never heard my system. MC reproduction of MC Classical recordings sounds so much more natural and real than 2-channel reproduction that I too would never go back to 2-channel. I hear lots of real music--lots of highly skilled, real people playing in good spaces--and that's always what I compare reproduced music to. I have NEVER heard a 2-channel system sound even close to as good as my MC system when playing Classical music.

Complicated? I simply don't care.
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