New Sony Sound Standard???
Wendell Dingus
This may have been posted already, but I missed it if so...
From the August 7th issue of "In Sync - With Sony Home Audio/Video".
It's the newsletter "dedicated to Sony home audio/video retailers".
[Begin Quote]
SONY INTRODUCES DIGITAL CINEMA SOUND!
Brings Home Theater Soundstaging to a Whole New Level!
Today home theaters are made possible by wonderful technology produced
by the people at Dolby(R) Labs. This technology, called Dolby Pro
Logic(R), is widely recognized as an audio encoding format that enables
us to enjoy the emotional impact of the cinema in the comfort of our
homes. It is used during the broadcast of sporting events, television
mini-series, situation comedies, and of course it has been encoded onto
more than 5,000 precorded video titles. It is the defacto audio standard
for excellent home entertainment. But can a good thing get better?
It has as far as Sony is concerned. This year Sony is introducing a new
series of A/V receivers that employ dual rear channel amplifiers. This
is a technological improvement that enables Sony to perform very
sophisticated soundfield processing that would otherwise never be
possible. Let's take a look at Dolby Pro Logic decoding.
The Known Standard
A stereo signal is fed to the Dolby Pro Logic decoder where in phase
signals are separated and sent to the center channel amplifier, signals
unique to the left and right channels are, of course, sent to the front
left and right channel amplifiers, and signals that are out of phase are
sent to [the rear speakers? Newsletter was typoed here...]. Every Dolby
Pro Logic A/V receiver in the world provides outputs for two rear
speakers, it is important to note that the rear channel is a mono
signal. One common signal is fed simultaneously to the two rear channel
speakers. In most cases, this signal is amplified by one power amplifier
which drives both rear speakers.
Sony's Enhanced "Digital Cinema Sound"
Now Sony introduces a system which takes the mono rear channel signal,
splits it in two, and delays one side relative to the other before
passing it on to two high quality power amplifiers. A process called
decorrelation. This special proces can not be performed on a receiver
that has only one rear channel amplifier, that's why Sony is introducing
"Enhanced Digital Cinema Sound" made possible only with dual rear
channel amplifiers.
The Sony Advantage
The result is spectacular. The rear channel speakers become sonically
invisible. For instance, instead of hearing rain coming from the two
corners of your listening room, the rain truly surrounds you. It comes
from everywhere, all at once. Sony has called this new effect Digital
Cinema Sound, and it is available on th following '96 Sony receivers:
STRDE605 STRDE705 STRDE805G STRGA7ES STRGA8ES STRGA9ES STRDE905G
The FEATURE is called "Enhanced Digital Cinema Sound"
The ADVANTAGE is that dual rear channel amplifiers can pass a different
signal to each rear channel speaker.
The BENEFIT is a big, specious, involving soundstage.
[End Quote]
Chris Green
> The ADVANTAGE is that dual rear channel amplifiers can pass a different
> signal to each rear channel speaker.
>
> The BENEFIT is a big, specious, involving soundstage.
>
> [End Quote]
>
>
Gee, Sound slike Sony is implementing AC-3 and the marketing folks want to
make it sound like they are the only people out there doing it. What a
crock.
Chris Green
CGr...@Vonl.Com
Happy Yamaha DSP-A3090 owner
Dylan Ginsburg
"Chris Green" <cgr...@vonl.com> wrote:
>> The ADVANTAGE is that dual rear channel amplifiers can pass a different
>> signal to each rear channel speaker.
>>
>> The BENEFIT is a big, specious, involving soundstage.
>>
>> [End Quote]
>
>Gee, Sound slike Sony is implementing AC-3 and the marketing folks want to
>make it sound like they are the only people out there doing it. What a
>crock.
Read more carefully, it's not a crock at all. Here is the important
line:
>>Now Sony introduces a system which takes the mono rear channel signal,
>>splits it in two, and delays one side relative to the other before
>>passing it on to two high quality power amplifiers. A process called
>>decorrelation.
Basically, they are talking about a THX like scheme for the rear
channels. This is something that works with Pro Logic encoded
material, not AC-3. I think this is significant because they have put
this feature on a receiver that only costs $400. THX decorrelation
works pretty well so if Sony has implemented their version well I
think it gives their lower end receivers a big edge in the market. I'm
not aware of any other receivers near this price point that offer
anything other than the normal mono rear channel.
-Dylan
Richard
dy...@mailzone.com (Dylan Ginsburg) wrote:
No one has mentioned yet that Sure used digital delay between the rear
channels years ago! I owned one of the Shure HTS surround units and
it worked well. To give you an idea of just how long ago this was, it
had a _wired_ remote! It was not pro logic though as pro logic was
not around at that time. I love it when a company introduces
something as "new and improved" when, while it _may_ be improved, it
certainly is not new! Just my 2 cents. :^)
Best regards,
Richard
Mike Weston
Wendell Dingus wrote:
>
> The BENEFIT is a big, specious, involving soundstage.
specious -- adj. that looks well at first sight; deceptively attractive;
plausible
Freudian slip, perhaps?
Seriously, I'm a big fan of Sony and this announcement is probably a
fine thing, but this was too funny to pass up.
-- Mike (speaking for myself and not my employer)
Thomas Meyer
> SONY INTRODUCES DIGITAL CINEMA SOUND!
> Now Sony introduces a system which takes the mono rear channel signal,
> splits it in two, and delays one side relative to the other before
> passing it on to two high quality power amplifiers. A process called
> decorrelation.
Am I missing something? Is this a delayed april fool? Is Sony going crazy?
Does THX know about this?
Bye,
Thomas
PS: Well, at least they won't release Home-SDDS. Now THERE would be
trouble...
--
Thomas Meyer Student of Computer Science
Bremen E-Mail: i0...@zfn.uni-bremen.de
Germany WWW: http://www-user.zfn.uni-bremen.de/~i03a/
Ronald Schneider
On 12 Oct 1996, Wendell Dingus wrote:
> SONY INTRODUCES DIGITAL CINEMA SOUND!
> Brings Home Theater Soundstaging to a Whole New Level!
----------------------------<snip>----------------------
> splits it in two, and delays one side relative to the other before
> passing it on to two high quality power amplifiers.
----------------------------<snip>----------------------
> STRDE605 STRDE705 STRDE805G STRGA7ES STRGA8ES STRGA9ES STRDE905G
Dear People with ears,
Is Sony on CRACK? I purchased the STRDE705 and listened to it at
home only to return it the next day because the rear amplification was
C*@p! It was the worst amplification I have ever experienced. I feel that
this new line of receivers is going to hurt Sony's reputation for quality
which I had always admired. My 46" Big screen has better amplification at
10 watts/ch. then the Sony surround amps. Here just listen.....
"Hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss"
Did you you hear the hissing?
Tyson Schneider
kate
"Chris Green" <cgr...@vonl.com> writes:
> > The ADVANTAGE is that dual rear channel amplifiers can pass a different
> > signal to each rear channel speaker.
> >
> > The BENEFIT is a big, specious, involving soundstage.
> >
> > [End Quote]
> >
> >
>
> Gee, Sound slike Sony is implementing AC-3 and the marketing folks want to
> make it sound like they are the only people out there doing it. What a
> crock.
>
Well no. At least not if the article is describing what I think it is.
Here in New Zealand, we have a number of cinemas with what is known as
SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) installed in them.
You see AC-3 and DTS both only have 5.1 channels. Left, Right, Centre,
Left surround, Right surrouns and a sub channel.
SDDS has Left Surround, Right Surround, Sub, Left, Right, Centre, Centre
left and Centre right.
Hmm, I notice something different there. OOOHHHH RIGHT.. There's 2 more
channels for the centre, a centre right and a centre left. well oh well,
but I thought it was supposed be exactly the same as AC-3 but be the
first to discover it - seems not.
Unless I'm wrong, and Sony were lying.
Go figure
-- "There's a reason there's a banana in my ear.....
I'm trying to lure the monkey out of my head"
Franklin Sherman, The Critic's father.