| Cinema Cynergy May 2003
Home-Theater Alternatives
Multichannel home-theater systems are
becoming more and more prevalent these days and they provide a lot of entertainment value,
but they are not a requirement for enjoying movies in your own home. There are times when
you might not want to crank-up your home-theater system after the kids have gone to bed.
There’s also the chance that someone might actually be using the living room for
something other than watching movies. Perhaps you don’t have the space for a
full-scale 5.1-channel system, or perhaps you don’t want to have all those speakers
and wires lying about. You might even want to watch the occasional movie on your PC, or
you may be a college student living in a dorm room where that might be your only option.
Whatever the case may be, there are plenty of ways to enjoy
listening to movies at home that do not require a full-blown surround system. Recently I
took a short break from listening to 5.1-channel systems to try some of these alternatives
for myself.
Good old stereo
This might seem like common sense or a radical idea
depending on your point of view, but listening to movie soundtracks on a stereo is a
viable alternative to a 5.1 system. Even though a DVD may contain only a Dolby Digital
5.1-channel soundtrack, all DVD players have the ability to "downmix" the
information into two channels and output it through the left and right stereo outputs.
Connecting a DVD player (or even a stereo VCR) to even a
modest stereo receiver or integrated amplifier and speakers will sound much better than
using the speakers built into your television. I am not sure why more people do not
configure their audio/video systems in this manner. By simply positioning the TV between
the speakers you can enjoy excellent stereo sound from your DVDs and recorded tapes.
If you have a high-quality two-channel system and
haven’t hooked it up to your DVD player, you may be surprised at how good it sounds
when playing back movie soundtracks. Because my reference rig is usually part of a
5.1-channel system, I have never bothered trying to playback DVDs in stereo until now. I
was extremely pleased with how stable and wide the soundstage was with individual sounds
placed accurately within it, along with the high fidelity that I am accustomed to with CD
recordings. Although the presentation was limited to the front of the room, the quality of
the sound was so good that it kept me engaged in the movie and I was not distracted by the
lack of surround ambiance or sound effects.
Simulated surround sound
Virtual surround attempts to expand the soundstage
and provide a more enveloping surround effect from only two front speakers.
SRS Labs' TruSurround is one example of virtual surround,
and since it is now included on many DVD players, you don’t even need to purchase an
outboard decoders to experience it. The technology works with Dolby Digital-encoded
material, but does not work with DTS soundtracks or regular CDs.
The TruSurround decoding circuitry built into my Pioneer
DV-45A DVD player did manage to expand the soundstage well outside the speakers and to the
sides of the room, and it also seemed to increase the height of the entire image. An added
benefit was that the sweet spot increased in size so that if you sat off center, the sound
did not seem to snap to one speaker as it often does with stereo. The only problem was
that I found the presentation to be overly "phasey" and diffuse, which made
everything seem slightly out of focus and indistinct. Although sounds often seemed to be
coming from the sides of the room and the sense of surround ambiance was increased, I
found the effect to be too program dependent and unpredictable for my tastes. Although it
offers some benefits, I often preferred normal stereo playback. Depending on your room
acoustics and speaker placement, your experience may be different.
Headphones anyone?
Headphones are perfect for late-night listening or anytime
that you don’t want to disturb others. The problem with them for movies is that
phantom center images tend to be placed directly between your ears, which can be annoying
with music, but it can be especially distracting with movie soundtracks where voices and
sound effects seemingly dance around inside your head. Also with headphones, sounds that
image either hard left or hard right appear to be placed right next to or just inside your
ear, which can also be disconcerting.
Headphones + TruSurround
While I preferred the sound of movies played back over two
speakers without TruSurround processing on my system, I found that I actually preferred
listening to movies through headphones with the TruSurround circuit engaged. The imaging
was a little diffuse with the processing, but I found that to be better than having the
images placed inside my head. The sound now seemed to be coming from slightly in
front of me and to the sides as if there were tiny speakers placed just a few inches away.
Dolby Headphone
Dolby has recently introduced a type of virtual-surround
processing specifically designed for headphone listening. I only know of one audio/video
component, the Denon AVR-5803 receiver, that has this feature, but it is available on many
personal computer systems and on several multimedia and DVD software players. I was able
to experience Dolby Headphone with WinDVD, which was bundled with my PC.
The sound of Dolby Headphone was similar to what I heard
with TruSurround, only better. The imaging was slightly more distinct and it seemed as
though the sounds were coming from further away so that the soundstage was spread out just
a bit more. With Dolby Headphone I consistently got a very satisfying experience when
watching DVDs on my PC. It was far better than using headphones with no additional
processing.
PC listening
I did all of my listening with Dolby Headphone on my PC,
but I also spent some time on my computer enjoying DVDs played back through its powered
speaker system. The cheap plastic speakers that typically come bundled with computers are
not what I would recommend for this, but for $150 to $200 you can get some
pretty-good-sounding speaker systems. These typically consist of two small satellites, and
a powered subwoofer unit that contains an amplifier for the two speakers. Of course you
can spend a lot more money, but for casual listening I don’t think that you need to.
I have been using a Monsoon speaker system for the past
couple of years that utilizes planar (flat-panel) speaker technology. When properly
positioned, these speakers actually provide decent imaging even in a desktop environment,
and the sub provides bass quality similar to a large bookshelf speaker. When I watched
DVDs or listened to CDs and MP3s on my PC, the Monsoon speaker system made the experience
much more enjoyable than it would have been with the throwaway speakers that originally
came with my system.
Sound results
Whether it was listening to movies on a two-channel system
or on headphones with and without virtual-surround processing, I discovered that there are
many viable and very enjoyable ways to experience movies other than through a 5.1-channel
surround-sound system. I was especially surprised by how much I enjoyed watching movies on
my PC with headphones and Dolby Headphone processing. I was also surprised by how good
movies sounded on a high-quality two-channel system without any additional processing. The
high fidelity and excellent imaging characteristics of my two-channel stereo made movies
really come to life.
So go ahead and try listening to your favorite DVDs with
virtual-surround processing and different types of hardware configurations as I did and
you, too, may also be pleasantly surprised by what you hear.
...Roger Kanno
roger@hometheatersound.com |
