Multichannel Stereo - Anybody Else?

[Blueprint]

Recently I’ve been playing around with the standard Denon upmixers on my AVR (I don’t have Auro-3D, nor do I have height speakers) and I find that for music particularly, I’m really enjoying multichannel stereo. I’d never really given it much thought before. All-channel stereo - surely for imaging and sound staging, that can’t be right? But it works fantastically well at enlarging the perception of scale in my opinion, it approximates a large room effect much better than upmixed stereo and even 5.1 material. I don’t like it for movies, the dialogue coming from behind me is too weird. But for music, it’s a delightful effect.

What say you? Have you had much joy listening in this way? Or do you have a strong view the other way?

 

[masterhw]

Sure, for stereo sources Multi Ch Stereo is my preferred mode. I do find it destroys imaging a bit, but I’ve experimented with disabling the centre channel and it comes right back. Feels like wearing huge headphones!

 

[DVDdoug]

With regular 2-channel stereo sources it's not REALLY "multi-channel stereo" but different AVRs (or different soundcard utilities) have different names and multiple options for "up-mixing".

I use a "hall" or "theater" setting for the "feel" of a larger space. ...And I've had my (2-channel stereo) speakers in a "dance hall" a couple of times and they sound WAY better in a larger space!

surely for imaging and sound staging, that can’t be right?

Correct! This is hi-fi heresy! We are not listening "as intended" or "accurately" as was heard in the mixing/mastering studio.

I also have a shelf-full of concert DVDs with 5.1 channel surround (and a couple of Blu-Rays). Those sound fantastic and I am listening as-intended.

I don’t like it for movies, the dialogue coming from behind me is too weird. But for music, it’s a delightful effect.

That's a little weird with music too... I don't want the vocals coming from the rear. But there should be up-mixing options that don't do that. Dolby Pro Logic decoding can foul-up music or movies that are not Pro Logic encoded. It's just hit-or-miss if you "decode" something that's not encoded. If they are encoded properly the dialog will come out of the center channel.

 

[Blueprint]

To be clear, I am specifically talking about all-channel stereo. This is an option on my AVR and I assume all other Sound United AVRs. Multichannel up mixers are different entirely, they are interesting in their own right of course. Dolby Surround is good for music, I find. Neither the Dolby or DTS one is particularly good for movies.

But multichannel stereo is what I’m talking about in this case. All speakers producing the same signal. I don’t see it discussed much and was really quite impressed by its spatial effect.

 

[Blueprint]

Sure, for stereo sources Multi Ch Stereo is my preferred mode. I do find it destroys imaging a bit, but I’ve experimented with disabling the centre channel and it comes right back. Feels like wearing huge headphones!

This is interesting as I am also without a centre channel currently.

 

[masterhw]

All speakers producing the same signal.

I hope not or that would be multi channel mono, no? I assumed it worked by just making all left speakers play the left mix channel (and right for right) with the center presumably summing.

I only have 5.1 so no rear voices for me. And yeah centre channel is maybe the only complaint, but it’s easy enough to disable in the web interface of Denon AVRs.

 

[Blueprint]

I hope not or that would be multi channel mono, no? I assumed it worked by just making all left speakers play the left mix channel (and right for right) with the center presumably summing.

Yes, of course. Good catch.

 

[EJasonC]

Some processors call it 'party mode' which can be enjoyable for a party of folks listening along with you all over the room.
I rarely engage multi-channel stereo; I find it rather fatiguing.
A highly resolving strictly two channel system can render stereo channels with near holographic imaging effectively surrounding one's ears especially if the source has been engineered well.
I have many recordings that do just that; it's uncanny! (pun intended; I don't listen much on 'cans' anymore)
IME, much depends on the source material, but for the most part, I prefer only left/right for music listening enjoyment.
I have a 7.2 HT for movies, and the occasional multi-channel music, (ie: NOT multichannel stereo).

 

[Scytales]

For me, multichannel stereo is based on a recording made with more than 2 channels. In fact, this is the way stereo seemed to have been envisaged by some of the earlier US disc labels, such as RCA.

Read this outstanding paper, if you can access to it : Acoustics of Sound Reproduction in the Home, JAES, January 1960, volume 9.

In this article, the stereophonic reproduction system has been described by RCA research engineers as a multichannel system of which a two-channel system was only a borderline case. The more the channels the better and the ideal case is theoretically an infinite number of channels.

Since I have built a three channels hifi system, I have explored some multichannel front-end recordings with three or five channels of which I currently listen to only the 3 front ones (early RCA Living Stereo or Mercury Living Presence or Vanguard or Everest and modern recordings from BNL, Syrius, Passavant and some good Pentatone). I was totally converted to this type of recordings, that brings a new dimension to the faithfulness of the sound to actual live sound and improve the bass rendition. I am eager to add two more channels to the system to improve it further!