RE: OT Discrete Surround Sound Speakers

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Paul,

I'd suggest that you start by finding a different shop :-)

There are two different things going on here about the "would not know= what sounds were supposed...", neither of which has anything to do wi= th whether the s/w is active or not.

Firstly, the old-fashioned way of sending signals to a subwoofer was to fee= d the front channels into it _as_well_ as to the front pair as speaker sign= als. The s/w would then have a low-pass filter (a resistor/capacitor networ= k) that filtered out high frequencies within the speaker electronics, and t= hen passed only the low frequencies remaining onto the s/w cone.

The newer way of doing this is to use a processor to do the filtering BEFOR= E the signal gets sent to the speaker, and therefore has a dedicated connec= tion on the processor for a subwoofer. Depending on the source material, it= may do this simply by applying a low-pass filter, or by decoding digitally= what was intended for a bass channel. Only material encoded with one of th= e most modern formats (Dolby Digital (AC-3), DTS) etc. have this channel. T= he older formats (Stereo, Dolby Pro-Logic) don't.

Neither of these require the s/w to be active.

All active means is "it has a built-in amp". In the second case, = this means that you take the "s/w out" from your processor, not a= s a speaker cable connection, but as a "line-level" connection, p= robably on a 35mm phono socket. (In the former it's slightly more complex, = but basically re-amplifies an already-amplified signal, and probably has a = more sophisticated cross-over that filters the LOW frequencies out of the s= ignal that goes onto the main pair as well.) (Yes - I know I'm oversimplify= ing here, Phil!)

I would be very dubious of any hi-fi shop that confused active/passive with= filtering/dedicated channels, and would only look to buy hi-fi from a deal= er who understood it better than me - not worse!

Regards,

Mark



-----Original Message-----
From: paul_watkin [mailto:paul_watkin@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 10 September 2002 12:41
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx Subject: [ukha_d] OT Discrete Surround Sound Speakers


It has been suggested by SWMBO that my current surround sound
speakers are a bit on the ugly side and take up way to much space
that could otherwise be occupied by furniture, therefore I am in the
market for a discrete speaker solution.

I am considering the BOSE Accoustimass 10's and also KEF KHT2005 (I
think that's the right one). And would be very much obliged if anyone
could provide feedback on these choices or any other suggestions.

The current speakers are powered by a Sony Pro Logic Amp thatI bought
ages ago when I was a student, this will be upgraded soon but in the
short term asthetics are more important.

At the weekend I was in a HiFi shop in Windsor and was talking with
the sales chap about the BOSE system and was told that it was
completely useless for watching DVD's as the bass module was not
active and therefore would not know what sounds were supposed to be
produced by the subwoofer and which were just normal bass signals.

I am not sure I understand his logic, in that surely that processing
would be done by any half decent modern AV amplifier which would have
seperate outputs for each of the 6 speakers, or am I missing
something peculiar about the way the bose system works/ is wired.

BOSE's own advetising materials suggest that the product is targeted
at home cinema use but the shop didn't, they did of course have a
solution to the problem in the form of Accoustimass 15 speakers for
another 400 quid!

I wouldn't have bought them from him anyway as they are way cheaper
>from their Bicester shopping village outlet which also had some very nice
Crestron panels on display.

The speakers will also have to double as HiFi speakers and capable of
dealing with everything from Trance to classical, our movie watching
habits are equally varied.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post

Paul

P.S. If anyone has any recommendations as to the best AV amplifier to
go with them please let me know, ideally =A3400 to =A3600.



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