Failure of Multichannel

I dabbled in surround music during a five year rest from vinyl. Ultimately, I decided there was more mileage in focussing my resources on stereo.

Roon and Linn Exakt combined to expand my stereo system to surround sound. It worked quite well with some albums. Yet, I gave it up because the sound quality fell short of what I was obtaining from stereo.

The first problem was that my Linn DSM doesn’t play surround files. So I used a Roon ROCK NUC outputting via HDMI. That just couldn’t match the quality of stereo on the DSM.

Secondly, my active integrated surround speakers, while a tidy solution, didn’t match the sound quality of front channels amps and speakers.

When returning to stereo, I realised there was already a great deal of depth and immersion in the stereo set up. Surround was unnecessary for musical enjoyment and quality is more important.

I also found I was listening to music that wasn’t to my taste just because it was available in multichannel.

Reluctantly, I traded in the surround speakers against an upgrade of the stereo DACs. If Linn ever enable the DSM to play multichannel files, I may reconsider.

One unexpected bonus was that removal of the surround speakers from the room did benefit sound quality of stereo.

Wrong on many counts...A guy only needs 2 stereo pairs (total of 4) and it can all be done analog without any dsp.

The following describes a setup with 3 pairs, but, one can get some great results with just 2 pairs... that can make him regret going back to stereo.

Angela Yeung has many videos on this topic.

https://youtu.be/_MO3kmCzKsI?si=ULbU--75f5V6sF-n

As of now, stereo is the king of the hill. It is established, simple and economical. This is real genius stuff. You only need 2 speakers to create a holographic image of a complex event. It uses your room and some acoustical equipment to bring you to the event. Multi-channel requires a minimum of 5 speakers and a lot of digital signal processing to do the same thing.

@deep_333 

That may well be true. Nevertheless, I’d rather spend my money on improving the sound quality of the two channels I have than on acquiring more. Each to their own.

You could crack out the stereo as much as you want....But, there’s a very finite limit above which there is no perceivable upgrade, only side-grades, different sonic signatures, repackaged and sold over and over in a different chassis, different color lights and buttons from different guys. It’s a fallacy that an endless amount of sonic upgrades shall be bestowed upon a guy just because he keeps paying up. Such a thing shall never happen.

What Angela Yeung’s describing is actually a very simple and straightforward experiment...no dsp, no complicated prepro with a steep learning curve, no 360 reality, no neural x, no atmos, no auro 3d.......nothing but good ol’ analog stereo, continuing to keep it simple for simple minds, no one’s trying to teach old dogs any new tricks.  She’s just talking about adding another stereo pair of speakers sitting behind the listener receiving the same stereo signal that the front speakers got....

Most guys around here have an extra set of preouts on a preamp that’s hooked up to their turntable, i’d assume??

Most guys around here would have an extra set of bookshelf speakers and a poweramp or something catching dust in storage??

Well, put the bookshelf pair straight behind the listening position and hook it up.  Flip the phase on them (swap the left/right speaker cables) or not and see what works best. You may need something like a 40 dollar Schiit Sys for a separate level adjustment on the back speaker pair to move the resultant stage depth forward & back, based on what works in the room, that’s it....It’s not surround, it’s not quad....it’s good ol’ stereo and it’s really not complicated.

That may well be true. Nevertheless, I’d rather spend my money on improving the sound quality of the two channels I have than on acquiring more. Each to their own.

@deep_333 

“You could crack out the stereo as much as you want....But, there’s a very finite limit above which there is no perceivable upgrade, only side-grades, different sonic signatures, repackaged and sold over and over in a different chassis, different color lights and buttons from different guys. It’s a fallacy that an endless amount of sonic upgrades shall be bestowed upon a guy just because he keeps paying up. Such a thing shall never happen.”

Ah! That old chestnut, diminishing returns. Of course, it’s quite possible to spend unwisely. That doesn’t mean it can’t be successful as well.