need some help- "dolby virtual speaker"

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Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I want to find a receiver that has Dolby Virtual Speaker. My parents
have a 5.1 setup. My mom hates having cables go under a rug to the rear
speakers, it makes vacuuming a pain. My dad frankly is not an audiophile
and hardly notices the rear speakers, most often he's sitting in a chair
outside the rear speakers anyways, so he's getting no real benefit from
them- he just bought into 5.1 sound because he heard it was "good", and he
likes the subwoofer. I told them they have technologies available that
would allow them to only use 2 or 3 speakers and their subwoofer, but I'm
not an expert on which receivers have this feature. Any help would be
appreciated.

I have a small box hooked up to my PS2 that does Trusurround using Dolby
Prologic sources over my Altec Lansing speakers (they are nice for cheap
multimedia speakers- they are even ported). It works OK, although I hear
more impressive 3D effects on my PC (the best feature is the bass boost,
more than anything else- I don't need a subwoofer). I'm looking, though,
for something that would directly decode Dolby digital and work with a 3.1
setup (center speaker and subwoofer) and be integrated into a
receiver/amplifier.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

"Magnulus" <magnulus@bellsouth.net> wrote in
news:wytte.145354$J25.140247@bignews6.bellsouth.net:

> I want to find a receiver that has Dolby Virtual Speaker. My
> parents
> have a 5.1 setup. My mom hates having cables go under a rug to the
> rear speakers, it makes vacuuming a pain. My dad frankly is not an
> audiophile and hardly notices the rear speakers, most often he's
> sitting in a chair outside the rear speakers anyways, so he's getting
> no real benefit from them- he just bought into 5.1 sound because he
> heard it was "good", and he likes the subwoofer. I told them they
> have technologies available that would allow them to only use 2 or 3
> speakers and their subwoofer, but I'm not an expert on which receivers
> have this feature. Any help would be appreciated.

My old Kenwood VR509 has these features. You just tell it how many and
what kinds of speakers and it does the rest. It also has digital
decoding of the audio, so you need only one digital cable (optical or
coax) to connect the DVD player or sat box to it.


--
Dave Oldridge+
ICQ 1800667

A false witness is worse than no witness at all.
God is an evolutionist.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Magnulus <magnulus@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> I want to find a receiver that has Dolby Virtual Speaker.

I think most HT receivers work the way mine does: there's
a setup procedure where you tell the receiver what speakers
are connected to it. If you say you don't have center or
surround speakers, the receiver routes the sound that would
have gone to them to the other speakers that you do have. But
I'm not sure that's what you mean by "virtual speaker".
--
Greg Lee <greg@ling.lll.hawaii.edu>

 

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Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

"Greg Lee" <greg@ling.lll.hawaii.edu> wrote in message
news:d96nqk$2r5$2@news.hawaii.edu...
> I think most HT receivers work the way mine does: there's
> a setup procedure where you tell the receiver what speakers
> are connected to it. If you say you don't have center or
> surround speakers, the receiver routes the sound that would
> have gone to them to the other speakers that you do have. But
> I'm not sure that's what you mean by "virtual speaker".

"Virtual speaker" uses head related transfer functions, it is not simply
routing the surrounds to the front speakers. These are basicly audio
filters applied to the sound, combined with crosstalk cancellation. With
HRTF's, the sound really does sound like it is comming from behind you, if
the HRTF's match your head size and ear shape (usually they use an average).

3D sound cards on the PC, such as the Soundblaster, have been using this
for years for games. Most PC DVD players also have Dolby Virtual
Speaker/Dolby Headphone.

 

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Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Here is a review of NIRO1
http/www.digitalhomecanada.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=167&Itemid=34

that is only two speakers but does a great job. Made by Nakamichi founder
who has a new company.

I've listened to it and I was impressed. Google NIRO1 and you'll find lots
of reviews.