OP
- Thread Starter
- #101
I’ve finally set up a basic (4.1) multichannel setup using my 8351B’s in the front and 8330A as the surrounds. Using my Denon AVR and Apple TV to stream music, both stereo and Dolby Atmos.Well I think of upmixed stereo as more of a "value add" to a multi-channel system. That's why I have a combined film/tv and music setup. I agree the value is probably not quite there as a pure upmixing system. Especially when you consider the mounting/cabling requirements.
First of all, when playing actual multichannel music, I’m definitely impressed and I don’t know if I can really go back to only stereo now It was fun just browsing through some of the example songs on some of the default Spatial Audio playlists, for example:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/th...-no-3-in-f-major-rv-293/883897569?i=883897597
However other multichannel remixes are pretty bad. In some they decided to place only the vocals behind and only the instruments in front, which was really weird and IMO not really desirable.
Now when trying stereo upmixing to multichannel is where it gets interesting. The Denon AVR I use has a few upmixing modes, but interestingly all of them sound pretty bad except two modes: Pure stereo (obviously, ie nothing is played on the surrounds at all), and “Multichannel Stereo” which seems to play the exact same signal on the surrounds as on the fronts.
It’s not quite the same as the soundstage of the Salon2’s or course, but definitely very similar in all the good ways I’ve been wanting. In fact it’s quite a bit more enveloping, where you feel like the music is completely surrounding you. Sometimes too much so, since the “Multichannel Stereo” mode seems to play the surrounds just as loudly as the fronts (I assume it’s the exact same signal). I’d like to just turn down the volume of the rears in this mode ideally, but I can’t do that aside from adjusting the level calibrations which would degrade the results when playing actual Dolby Audio etc.
What’s interesting is how terrible any of the other upmixing modes are. All the subtle 3D info in the soundstage gets completely destroyed in any of these modes aside from pure “Stereo”, and “Multichannel Stereo”.
That said, I actually am quite impressed by how good it sounds with just the simple “Multichannel Stereo” upmixing. It’s too early to say, as I’m mostly distracted by all the Dolby Atmos music available on Apple Music right now
But from initial impressions, I do actually think a multichannel Genelec setup can match and probably exceed the enjoyment of wide pattern speakers like the Salon2’s when playing even stereo content, with the right upmixing.
There are caveats though. As I feared, even when the upmixing sounds really good, it does for the center area of the room, but not so much for the back. That said, the back of the room didn’t sound ideal even when playing stereo tracks on the Salon2’s, but it still sounded quite good and the sound is continuously similar as you transition between e.g. center and rear listening position. In contrast, with the 4.1 setup, the location of the rear speakers become like blinding suns of excessively loud noise, standing out versus blending in. It becomes impossible to ignore that you’re sitting a few feet away from a speaker. I’ll have to see in practice though how much of a problem this is, if any.
If it’s not a big problem, I could totally see a surround system consisting of Genelec coaxial to be quite the ideal ultimate no-compromises setup
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