OT: Surround Sound?

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon
Loading thread data ...

formatting link
anyone ever been done for making claims about "tighter bass" and "natural and effortless midrange" etc?

Reply to
Part Timer

Yep .. Russ Andrews ....

might have to copy 'n paste..

Interesting all the same how he finds the punters;!...

Reply to
tony sayer

Russ Andrews is an amateur compared to Peter Belt:

formatting link

Reply to
Steve Firth

and heaped more crap upon crap until it was a mile high.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

In article , Grimly Curmudgeon scribeth thus

Course none of these people ever see what a recording desk or studio is wired with. Or what carries the mains to your £3000 whizz bang mains lead;!....

Reply to
tony sayer

They don't care. All they want to do is put up a smokescreen then sell their tat to mugs.

Reply to
Steve Firth

The amusing but is when you discover that he sells felt pens, foil and "cream" which you use to write positive messages on your hi fi, to amplify positive thoughts and to screen out negative thoughts. All items available at mind bending prices. Belt charges £100 for sticky backed foil and the same for 5ml of "cream". Yes that's right, 5ml.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Given that someone recently posted his address and a quick Google StreetView revealed it to be small and shabby, I suspect he doesn't sell a lot of it.

Reply to
Huge

I can't speak for anyone else, but in my species we have 2 ears, making 2 s= ound channels useful. Splitting speaker channels by frequency has its merit= s, but any further splitting into more channels is just money wasted on mar= keting gimmicks. Since woofer content is normally mono, that makes 3 channe= ls about as useful as it gets. (Unless you get into extreme kit such as tri= amping. The latter has its uses, but not for normal home use.)

When using non-stranded cable, ie where its fitted and won't move in use, 2= runs of bell wire gives 2mm^2 conductors at a fraction the cost of mains T= &E. When using stranded, and its often convenient to do the whole setup in = stranded, there are various sizes of speaker flex available. There's nothin= g else of merit about speaker cables other than conductor cross section, an= d going OTT on conductors is pointless. Bear in mind an 8ohm speaker usuall= y has around 5 ohms of resistance in its voice coil already, so adding 5m o= f 22milliohm per metre flex is not really an issue.

Speaker connectors also have little to recommend them other than convenienc= e and compatibility. The sprung press in flex connectors usually found on 1=

980s speakers are quite good - one can argue over minor upsides and downsid= es with some other connectors, but really its fairly trivial. Standard main= s screw connector strips also work well enough, just slower to connect.

In most cases the big weakpoint in tvs is the speakers, and simply plugging= in external hifi speakers is an easy and often free way to get a far bette= r result. (Beware of doing this with CRT sets, many have live speakers - an= d thus no speaker sockets.) Bookshelf speakers are what most people prefer,= they're not top of the quality tree but are compact & convenient. Top qual= ity equals very large.

In the few cases where more is needed, almost any hifi amp from the 70s onw= ard can do the job if the tv has analogue sound output. If its controlled b= y the tv's volume etc controls there's no need for any ongoing control of t= he external amp, making a remote for it unneecssary.

This is a diy group, not an electronics group, so expect recommendations of= multichannel surround sound, huge cables and other marketing guff. And exp= ect lots of objections from people with no knowledge, qualification or desi= gn skills in electronics.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

That's fine for the person sitting in the hot seat between the speakers, but if several are watching TV a more sophisticated arrangement can be a better compromise. A central dialogue speaker in particular makes the voices appear to come from the screen - things like music and effects don't matter if appearing to come from off screen.

I suggested TW&E to avoid buying new, as many will have some lying around.

I doubt there are many TVs still in service with live chassis - and those that are most unlikely to have stereo. However, I'd not use the internal power amps unless the set is provided with speaker outputs - those that aren't may well have the amp 'tweaked' for best results on the internal speaker.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Perhaps when someone sends him an order he calls them back and explains why they are plonkers.

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

So how do you explain the ability to determine whether a sound comes from a place in front of you or behind you?

Have you ever listended to a decent 5.1 system?

Or - possibly the ultimate challenge - have you ever had Michael Gerzon or Pdter Craven (try to) explain to you the theory behind Ambisonics?

Reply to
Robin

In real life, vision, expectation, and frequency content. With a non-natura= l sound source, speakers or headphones, you really cant. It can seem like y= ou can, but the info comes from expectations.

First, I'm pretty sure 5.1 is not ambisonics.=20

Second, and most important, if you're only spending 1 or 2 hundred quid, ad= ding more channels only results in poorer sound quality, as each speaker an= d channel necessarily gets cheaper, so you really end up worse off.

One could get into it more, but number 2 really is the clincher. There's ze= ro point going to multichannel unless you're prepared to spend a lot of mon= ey on genuinely good kit - and if you do, little is gained in the end. With= a =A3200 budget we're certainly not in that territory. Some consumer kit f= ocuses too much on fancy talk and too little on the realities.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Not to mention, driving a decent speaker from a puny TV amp is often a good way to shag the speaker.

Reply to
John Rumm

Speaking personally, I am quite capable of perceiving where a sound originates from anywhere around 360 degrees. I would expect that most people would be able to tell the difference between a noise behind them and in front of them even if the sounds falls equally loudly on both ears.

(the ear is a remarkable sensitive instrument and is capable of detecting directional information from sound using a range of techniques

- not just the stereo phasing).

If that is your experience, then perhaps you have a hearing problem? Or perhaps you have never listened to a proper 5.1 system?

IME the difference between watching a film with just a stereo image, and that with a full surround track is not subtle, but quite profound.

I am beginning to suspect you have shares in company that make bell wire! ;-)

You do speak do load of crap sometimes.

I also don't share you faith that readers of an electronics group are any more or less astute at spotting marketing guff.

Yes there is loads of crap spouted about cables. Some care in selection of wire

Reply to
John Rumm

...can make a difference in some cases. Generally this is where one is selecting from *less* than adequate cables. e.g. replacing one which is capable of carrying the full current demand without significant sag with one that can't may actually give a perceived improvement on a system that is rather bass heavy for example.

Upgrading from the clearly inadequate "speaker" (i.e. 0.2mm^2 CSA) wire that comes with many off the shelf systems can make a clearly audible difference. Whereas going beyond "adequate" to OFC or "directional" or any other hifi buff exotica is unlikely to pass a double blind test.

Reply to
John Rumm

Good rule is as large a cross-sectional area that you can reasonably afford, and make it stranded cable. Look up skin effect ..

Else change them for binding posts, about best of all apart from welding;

About right these days. Very worth doing, 'cos of our domestic arrangements of late when I do watch TV these days its often iplayer later on at night and as some here have to be up and about by 5 am!. I've got a very good pair of Sennheiser phones which are very revealing:-)...

Yep..

;!.

I reckon that a simple pair of bookshelf speakers are about as good as it needs to be for most all TV sound applications.

Sometimes we do put it thru the larger system which does show up the almost subsonic content ...

Reply to
tony sayer

Using Litz wire to make sure those strands don't short? ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

In article , Dave Plowman (News) scribeth thus

Indeed;)...

Wound by vestigal sidebanded virgins under moonlight of course..

Reply to
tony sayer

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.