News Dolby sounds off on 14-channel audio

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2006/01/08/dolby_viiv_ces/

 

14 channel audio is a bit much no?

 

Badgers you say.

Is that UHF reference?

 

Excessive...

Just another gimick to make you replace your audio set up and buy MORE speakers.

I couldn't even imagine having 14 speakers all over the room. It'd be like a bunch of posts jutting up from the floor (unless you integrate them into walls), making you look like some sort of ritualistic freak.

 

I can figure out the placement for eight of the channels (front l/r/c, rear l/r/c, side l/r) and the sub; what about the other five?

Imagine the wiring!! I thought getting my 5.1ch wired in a semi-decent manner was annoying...

 

Yeah, i'm with everyone on this one, 14 channels is just overkill my 7.1ch was an utter pita to setup with the wiring etc. I guess you could pull it off if your one of the few who have a cinema room, or actually are a cinema. But other than that i cant see it selling to regular people. Just gadget freaks and rich people.

 

Well considering they have no plans to release it, i bet they thought it was a bit excessive too. I'm sure that the uber-rich will be able to get access to it however.

 

It's definitely excessive, all I know is that I want it.

Dolby is really catching on with this home theatre PC business, it's great to see a big name in sound finally giving us onboard sound that will be better than Creative cards (hopefully?).

Badger?

 

Badger, as in the badging of cases with VIIV and Dolby logos I imagine.

You know, it really would be A Good Thing if there was some grading system for integrated audio, a scale of sorts. For instance, how does this Master Studio compare to Azalea?

 

well, i am pretty sure that 14 chanels would be adopted very fast in the pc gaming world, creative would sell new cards and we would finaly have our ceiling and floor speakers.

thats no joke, i really want them, and looking at the prices of "high end" sub satelites systems from logitech and creative, it would be cheap.

just buy two 7.1 systems. 2 * 7.1 = 14.2

and i am sure a second subwoofer doesnt hurt ;-)


any ideas why creative hasnt done that sofar?

 

You have full immersion of above and below speakers in 14 channel. 6 circulating you high and low, one central ahead and a sub.

The master studio stuff is great. I was listening to some piano stuff the other week and it separated out the violin onto my right, rear, flute onto my rear left and piano onto my front 3. Fantastic experience. Although I have to say 5.1 is more than enough for me.

If you buy an Intel or ATI based chipset with HD Audio: the only codec out there doing Dolby Master Studio is the Realtek ALC882M.

 

That sounds like an awful lot of work just placing those speakers. Those 6 "high" speakers should be attached to the ceiling, or placed on tall stands?
The wire spaghetti that ensues from such a setup must be a real nightmare...
However, i can imagine that this would be the crowning piece to the home cinema setup from heaven. I can really see this in a dedicated screening room, with the cabling tucked away in the sound-isolating wood panelling... nice...
For the record: I don't ever see the likes of Creative or Logitech producing a 14-channel speaker set. It's just too much outside of their product range, and it would appeal to only very small buyer group.

 

I'm guessing 3 speakers in each corner for low/mid/high in each corner plus center and sub.

 

im always highly dubious of dolby.

im have heard systems of 7.1 and 5.1 ranging from krell to even more expensive stuff and none of them have provided a better soundstage than a set of avalon speakers being driven by conrad johnson amps i heard.

as soon as you pump sound from another position over a soundstage created by 2 front speakers you kill the true soundstage and end up with a rough idea of position. of course more and more speakers gives you a better idea of position. but it wont touch a decent soundstage which you physically cant have with more than two speakers.

give me real stereo equipment with stereo recorded music (two mics thats it, no mixing nothing) on a decent hifi and you cant beat it.

but thats music (why anyone would want music piped through 5.1 i will never know, its usually upmmixed or just a normal performance with random noise behind you).

come to movies and its nice to have sound coming from behind its envloves you in the film more. but music no!!!

as for sound quality... dont get me started on dolby formats.

</rant>

 

I doubt if I could tell the difference between a good set of 5.1 speakers (like the Z-5500s) and a new TrueHD or 14.1 surround sound set. I'll stay with 5.1 in the near future i think.

 

I can't even bare the wiring mess from 5.1

 

I have a decent amp and a decent pair of speakers (Quadraphonic, aka 4.0) and i enjoy having 4.0 rather than a simple 2.0 setup. I dont know what it is, but having a bit of sound from the rear sounds much better. Alot of time (if i'm listening to techno or D&B) i'll listen to it in dual-stero, which sounds fantastic.