"Glenn Booth" wrote


True, and this was one of the reasons that he used the word
'plurity' in his patent applications for both speaker and microphone
arrangements. He was at EMI at the time, and that one word
confounded Decca's attempts to work around his patents
for ages, even twenty years after he filed them.

When I had a smaller listening room I ran my home cinema in a
"3.0" arrangement for a while, and it was ok - I'd much rather
have the centre channel than the rears, if it was a choice.


I don't bother with a centre speaker and don't miss it at all - voices still
come 'straight from the mouths' with only a decent stereo pair in the front.
The trouble with centre speakers is there's really nowhere to put them and
if they aren't much cop they will destroy the overall sound quality on
anything other than speech as they tend to dominate. (I was actually told
that the centre gets to handle 90% of the sound in a typical surround
setup!!??)

Rears are *almost* a complete PITA (wires etc.) but there is the odd
occasion with movies when they do add to the 'ambience' and effects. Watched
'Flightplan' last night and there were moments even in that, that benefited
from the rears (airplane creaking etc.) and stuff like Saving Private Ryan
would be lost without it!!


Somehow though I doubt we'll be seeing a mass market move
to three channel audio anytime soon! As Keith says, getting a
decent stereo image is just an exercise in determination and
setting things up right.


Yes and, of course, certain items of certain types of kit will enable a
better central image than others....

(No names, no pack drill, no thumping of tubs.....!! ;-)