You Know You Really Have Something When Your Stereo....?

[fas42]

1 hour ago, sandyk said:

 

 Perhaps you never heard Neil Diamond's 'Hot August Night" via a logic steered SQ Quadrophonic System ?

 

If ever there was an album that didn't need multi-channel fiddling to deliver tremendous listening, this is it ... 🙁

[Digi&Analog Fan]

There is no doubt that sound coming out of more channels than 2 can sound more believably palpable. Your system might be able to make it obvious that some instrument definitely sounds "behind" or "further back" than some  other instruments, but if you had a third and fourth speaker behind your main two, with one of the channels devoted to that "behind the others instrument", chances are it would sound more palpably there and more palpable in its depth imaging than the illusion of depth your stereo creates. An older audiophile that I was talking to on the phone years ago, I played him a track over the phone and when I walked back across the room over to turn off my stereo, and he didn't't know what I was doing, he heard a change in the sound,, the right channel speaker was right next to me and the left channel speaker was 7 feet on a straight  line to the left of me. When hearing that, before I turned off my system he commented, "wow you can really hear a lot of space between the instruments now". The instruments coming out of the left speaker about 7 feet away to the my extreme left all of a sudden sounded to him like I had a quad setup with speakers behind speakers. Stereo at one time looked like it was going to be 3 channels. Some of the old Citation amps had a 3 channel switch on the front. A good stereo can create a good illusion of depth, but it could be better still. I am a 2 channel man but realize things could be even better.

[sandyk]

30 minutes ago, fas42 said:

 

If ever there was an album that didn't need multi-channel fiddling to deliver tremendous listening, this is it ... 🙁

 

 Vinyl needed all the help it could get due to the very poor separation between channels with most cartridges

[Foggie]

21 hours ago, Digi&Analog Fan said:

I could be overlooking something, but with all the discussions, has anyone mentioned room acoustics as a possible cause.

I think acoustics are somewhat a polarizing topic (to some anyway).  The room dimensions, physics of and ultimately acoustics are pretty much the foundation of everything.  Its really impossible to argue that fact IMHO.  If one is striving for the best possible sound and experience this has to be addressed.

 

That being said, good sound can certainly be achieved without a lot of treatments, odd room configurations, non optimal dimensions etc..but as they say you don't know what you don't know.  If you are achieving great sound and enjoying the experience, that's all that matters in the end.  But the reality is that same rig in a proper room would be a completely different experience.

 

Additionally, too much of a good thing is just that.  e.g. a "500 ft sound-stage in all directions" is artificial, incorrect and not what I would strive for IMHO.  But again that is all personal preference I suppose