First post, by Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman
- Rank
- l33t
For those who love music, there is a surround decoder that claims to provide surround music without adding or subtracting anything from the recorded sound. In other words, it claims to create surround sound while preserving fidelity. As surround sound has been rejected by audiophiles - save obobkivisch 😉 , this could be a surround processor they wouldn't eschew.
From the website:
Surround Master combines true circular surround sound with real-time remastering to produce a completely accurate sound experience. Every sound recorded on a track is reproduced in exactly the same location where it was recorded, giving you the sense of actually being there.
Usually, I take such bold claim with a large grain of salt, especially when it claims to be able to reproduce the recorded sound in exactly the same location where it was recorded.
But the following intrigues me:
It actually listens to the recording in the same way humans listen to the environment - of course if there are no surround cues within the original tracks, there will not be any surround sound produced by the Surround Master as it neither adds or subtracts anything from the recording. However, the majority of original stereo recordings have at least some surround sound information in them that has never been successfully and accurately reproduced by existing systems. In most cases your music or DVDs will sound much better, as the Surround Master reveals everything in the recording, providing more clarity and making you feel more involved in the music. It allows you to experience things from your favourite audio that you may not have realised were even there.
By the way, this is the manual.
So what do you think? Is that true that the majority of original stereo recordings have at least some surround information in them? Does it refer to Dolby ProLogic matrix surround information? If that's the case, then I guess there are not many DPL recordings out there - especially music. Or probably almost every stereo recordings out there actually have surround information in it - regardless whether it's DPL-specific or not? Maybe it's actually generic phase and/or panning information and such, instead of DPL-specific encoding?
Nonetheless, this device has been praised in Audiokarma - an audiophile forum, so maybe it delivers its promises. Also, this review is generally positive. While it honestly describes that the Surround Master is less than mediocre in movies, it's very good in music. In fact, it beats DPL II in music, hands down. And while the review says the Surround Master does not make music more accurate, it doesn't say the Surround Master make music less accurate either, so at least the Surround Master preserves fidelity as it promises.
Also, this review captures (records) the Surround Master output and analyze the resulting quadraphonic WAV pattern, which yields quite interesting remark:
You can see by the wav files that you pretty much get what they say you're going to get. Sure, there's a little bleed through, b […]
You can see by the wav files that you pretty much get what they say you're going to get. Sure, there's a little bleed through, but not much, and to the listener, you don't hear it without sticking your ear up to the inactive speaker.
....
Here you can see the audio wav forms are clearly defined as they move from channel to channel. Again, if you want total isolation, it's not going to happen, but it's damn good and to the ear, it's easy to tell where the sound is coming from, and it's from the proper speaker.
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I will do more testing, but on first try, I say this is a winner. Remember, the box and the booklet and the unit do not claim or display a QS logo, so know that going in. If you're interested in a nice little surround box that does a really good job on QS, this box is for you.
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NOTE: You don't get spectacular results from everything. The source material determines what the SM can do, but when it's good, it's good!
I think for DOS games, DPL and DPL II will do better job, because with Surround Master, it all depends on the source material. If there's no (or very little) surround information in the game, then the Surround Master will not (or will produce very little) surround sound as well. But I've played stereo-only (not DirectSound 3D) games where stereo panning is quite spectacular, like TIE Fighter. I wonder if Surround Master will produce better surround than DPL II for that kind of games.
Thoughts? Anyone? And could anyone explain the mystery of "surround information" being there in commercial stereo CDs, whose existence we've never realized until now?
Never thought this thread would be that long, but now, for something different.....
Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman.