[NeedingInfo]

I am very familiar with the speaker setup recommended by Dolby and others for Surround sound, whether 5.1, 6.1, 7.1, 9.1, or whatever else they come up with. One basic premise is that the surround speakers need not be as "powerful" (if that is the term) as the fronts and center. In other words, you could use good quality satellite speakers for your side and back surrounds.


What about SACD multichannel setups? It seems to me that, if SACD provides at least quad sound (plus the center), that the rear speakers should be at least as good as the fronts, and that smaller sats might not be useful...


Is this the case? What comes out of SACD rears - is it "ambiance" and "effect" a'la Dolby, or are they mixed and used as "proper" channels...


I have not heard multi SACD yet, and need to buy speakers to support my kit.

 

[Kpt_Krunch]

I love and have tons of SACD's and DVD-A's as well. You do get 'ambient' sounds from the sides, but you also get full coverage. It depends on the disc and how it was mastered.


For instance, DSOTM by Pink Floyd was actually recorded in quadrophonic sound, so you get full instrumentation in the sides (surrounds, whatever you want to call them).


Others are just ambient. Some are 'audience' style and are meant to mimic what you would hear at a live perfomance (where sound can seem to come from behind and beside you).


So if you were going to go big into this, then ideally you'd want 5 identical speakers. However, for most of us, depending on the speaker type, 5 identical speakers may not be practical.


I have towers for my main front (as I also like stereo music and towers are the only way to go for that... if 2.0 that is), a very good center channel, and I have two book shelf speakers for the sides that are from the same family as my center and mains. I also have a very good (musical...if you want to call it musical) subwoofer which is very important.


I also don't believe that a 'dipole' speaker would sound very good for Multichannel music, but I haven't heard it that way so I could be very wrong there. It's just that dipoles are better IMO for 'ambient' sounds. When a Guitar is playing in a particular speaker, or when the child and James Hetfield are saying their 'prayer's in Sandman from the Black album, one voice coming from the left side speaker, the other from the right side, you don't want it 'floating' as it's not meant to be that way. But who knows, maybe it would sound great, I'm sure there are many people with this type of setup.