What is surround sound?
Instead of just two channels of conventional TV, surround sound offers up to five channels. The surround effect enhances realism and can be entertaining. The speakers are typically placed to circle around your listening position. The center-channel speaker is at the 12-o-clock position (directly in front of you), above or below the TV. The left-front and right-front speakers are at the 10- and 2-o-clock positions, respectively. The left-rear and right-rear speakers may be at the 8- and 4-o-clock positions, respectively, though some experimentation here is useful. Surround sound is of value primarily for DVD movies, though some digital and HD programming uses it as well. Surround systems that include a DVD player can also be used as stereo systems – the DVD player will play CDs. The sound will be typically in stereo through the main speakers.
Surround sound is aptly named for surrounding the listener with an acoustic environment that goes beyond the two-channel stereo experience of yesteryear. Today’s home theater systems place the viewer or listener inside a virtual landscape of sound. In real life, we experience sound in the context of ambient noises. If someone is talking to us, we might also hear the faint drone of a jet far above, a schoolyard full of children nearby, birds in the trees, and a television blaring from the next room. These sounds are spread throughout the audible landscape. Surround sound faithfully recreates an entire landscape by sending the right sounds to the right places to simulate an experience closer to real life. The first incarnation of surround sound was surround sound 5-1, which included five speakers and one subwoofer for delivering bass sounds. This is also referred to as Dolby Digital and Digital Theater Systems (DTS) sound. Next came DTS Extended Sound (DTS-ES) or THX as surround sound 6-
First there was mono with the sound emanating from a single “point”. Then there was stereo with directional information spread along a line in front of the listener. In real life, of course, sound reaches our ears from all directions. Surround sound attempts to improve the realism of the perceived sound by providing information from all directions, not just from in front of the listener. Surround sound can place you into the middle of an orchestra and there are many pieces of music staged this way. However, in the West, since the eighteenth century most music has been staged with the orchestra in front of the audience. Here, surround sound can be used to reproduce the “acoustic” of the recording venue. This is important because stereo will always be limited to creating the illusion of musicians playing in your living room – a “they are here” illusion. Only if the listener is surrounded with sound can there be any hope of creating the illusion that you have been transported into the rec
Surround sound refers to the use of multiple audio tracks to envelop the movie watching or music listening audience, making them feel like they’re in the middle of the action or concert. The surround sound movie soundtrack allows the audience to hear sounds coming from all around them, and plays a large part in realizing what movie makers call “suspended disbelief”. “Suspended disbelief” is when the audience is completely captivated by the movie experience and is no longer aware of their real-world surroundings. True surround sound formats rely on dedicated speakers that literally and physically surround the audience. There is one center speaker which carries most of the dialog (since the actors usually speak while making their on-screen appearance), and part of the soundtrack. There are left and right front speakers that carry most of the soundtrack (music and sound effects), and may carry parts of the dialog (when the director wants to intentionally off-set the source of the dialog t
