Episode 63 - 3 Secrets To Awesome Surround Sound [Discussion]

[travislopes]

Dolby’s wizards reveal the three key tips to getting the best multichannel audio out of your home theater

Watch and download this episode of Systm here. (http://revision3.com/systm/dolby/)

[nextgenxbox]

Awesome!

[haku]

"It's our month of home theater, we're gonna be building systems, we're gonna be building a DIY projector..."

Ha, neat, very much looking forward to the next episodes. I bet Patrick does a better job than when I built a LumenLab projector a few years ago. Proper tools and a workshop do tend to help ;)

As for this episode, interesting stuff, mainly it reminds me I've got to sort out my 5.1 setup because my rear speakers are buried behind too much stuff and the front 3 are all sitting on top of my widescreen.


Curiously there's no mention of tactile transducers, aka bass shakers that can strongly vibrate the chair/sofa you're sitting on as an addition/substitue to the subwoofer. I've got a couple of Aura shakers bolted to the back of this chair and they're pretty fun when watching a typical hollywood action film with big explosions.

You can make your own bass shaker from an old speaker, essentially you exchange the cone for a heavy weight, I had a go at making one and with some tweaking it works pretty effectively but not as small or as asthetic as an Aura one. This is a nice example of how to make a bass shaker: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1008901/cool_bass_shaker/

[fishtoprecords]

Weak episode. Nothing new here that you can't get by buying one magazine of the many in the Sound and Vision space.

A big ad for Dolby with nearly zero technical content.

What is behind True HD Sound? is it MLP? Something else? They hinted it was lossless, but never said that.

[justin111]

Are those Klipsch speakers that they're using in their sound room? Does anyone know?

EDIT: Nevermind, I'm an idiot, I should have finished watching the episode before posting my post :P

[wat_wace]

That is so funny. Bitgravity must be down. All of the show links though out Rev are going to a 404 page.

[vree]

"It's our month of home theater, we're gonna be building systems, we're gonna be building a DIY projector..."
Awesome!! It will be great to hear some in-depth coverage of Home Theater setups. There is so much information out there, and so much of it conflicts, that it is downright confusing.

Great lead out with the Dolby crew. I would have liked to see some compare and contrast between DTS MA and Dolby True HD, but it was still great brand-agnostic information on sound quality.

Hope to see some good information on projectors, as well as screens. This episode mentioned housing the center channel behind the screen. I would like to know if there are commercially available screens and setups to actually make this happen in the home.

Again, great show guys. I am looking forward to the future home theater episodes.

[tritium]

Does anyone have linkages to the specs that were mentioned in the show refrencing what would ammount to an 11.1 or 11.2 system? was it part of the blu-ray spec or the truehd spec? I didnt catch it clearly even when i went back to relisten to it. (11.2 = Center, Left, Right, Center High, Left High, Right Hight, Left Surround, Right Surround, Left Surround Back, Right Surround Back, Sub1, Sub2, Ceiling)

[melta]

I think the episode was alright. I think generally systm has picked up a lot lately, it's been an uneven show and for a while I thought it was doing really bad, with a couple of bad shows coming back to back.

Lately however systm has been good I think. If the dolby episode was coming from nowhere I think I would have been more skeptical. But since this is a part of (among other things?)a DIY projector I see it as a research background and it feels in place, and well structured. And relevant and therefore interesting.

The DIY projector project sounds awsome, I REALLY hope systm don't rush it.

Systm tends to lack consistency. What if you would have tied the freeNAS to this episode to store massive amounts of movies to be played on the home theatre later on?

A Mythbox or equivalent episode coming to hook it to the projector.
After that making a DIY canvas for the projector.
Then maybe make a DIY remote receiver with Lirc, thats a quick episode.

Don't just make a show about hacking stuff, make a show with the intention to change peoples home with hacking! But with some form of coherent appeal. This new direction that systm is heading to seems to be awsome, exactly what it needs.

[tritium]

I think the episode was alright. I think generally systm has picked up a lot lately, it's been an uneven show and for a while I thought it was doing really bad, with a couple of bad shows coming back to back.

Lately however systm has been good I think. If the dolby episode was coming from nowhere I think I would have been more skeptical. But since this is a part of (among other things?)a DIY projector I see it as a research background and it feels in place, and well structured. And relevant and therefore interesting.

The DIY projector project sounds awsome, I REALLY hope systm don't rush it.

Systm tends to lack consistency. What if you would have tied the freeNAS to this episode to store massive amounts of movies to be played on the home theatre later on?

A Mythbox or equivalent episode coming to hook it to the projector.
After that making a DIY canvas for the projector.
Then maybe make a DIY remote receiver with Lirc, thats a quick episode.

Don't just make a show about hacking stuff, make a show with the intention to change peoples home with hacking! But with some form of coherent appeal. This new direction that systm is heading to seems to be awsome, exactly what it needs.
At the moment, for tie-ins I'd just love for them to revisit the things they said they would revisit. For example how did the indestructible usb key do in the washing machine? How far did they get with the wifi linkup? Did they actually get the lemon battery working? Go back in almost every episode they have something in their project that they plan on revisiting either later in the episode or in a future episode that they never do. Im not criticizing... they have my project ethic, so it would be hypocritical to do so. They need a co-host. They need a new Dave (though he is irreplaceable).

EDIT: As a note, the FreeNAS episode was a quick on the spot replacement for the VMWare episode that was tapped for the following week. Tom was sick and roger came up with that in a pinch.

[tizzo]

Hey Patrick THANKS!!! so much for this you saved me from tossing out a Kenwood VR-6050. I had moved several times and it seems like the sound just got worse and worse.

You guys just saved me a lot of money for that perfect Dolby Sound on a fairly old box.

Todd
Boston, MA!!!!

[anillusion]

Hi Patrick, thanks for this episode. I hope the Dolby guys will help you build that Home Cinema. That would be really awesome, to see the experts at work and talk about why they make that hands on decision about equipment/speaker placement and acoustics.

[chuckles]

That is so funny. Bitgravity must be down. All of the show links though out Rev are going to a 404 page.

No fault of bitgravity. It was on us. :(

-chuckles-

[jglen490]

I don't normally keep the Systm episodes after downloading and watching, except for about four that I found to be extremely interesting and worth re-watching from time to time. Well now that count is five. Completely awesome, informative, and worth reviewing time and again.

Super job, Patrick. Definitely a keeper!!

[tdmeskimo]

Weak episode. Nothing new here that you can't get by buying one magazine of the many in the Sound and Vision space.

A big ad for Dolby with nearly zero technical content.
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i believe it gave a lot of common sence input; the example of getting good sound from a subwoofer, by putting on the couch and walking around the room for that sweet sound and spot, then put the subwoofer in that location. As for tech content, if you have the concept of them it did touch on them; the LFE; (5.1) two front, two rear, center and subwoofer; (7.1) two front, two rear, two center (inbeween the front and rear), and subwoofer. If you permet me use of acronym the dolby trade marks are codecs in how the sound is encoded in the media and decoded in the system.

[angrypenguin]

Hey Patrick, could you dial it back a little on the Arrogant Elitist Audiophile attitude? Your are killing me with your smug.

Thanks, much :)

[miken]

At the moment, for tie-ins I'd just love for them to revisit the things they said they would revisit. For example how did the indestructible usb key do in the washing machine? How far did they get with the wifi linkup? Did they actually get the lemon battery working? Go back in almost every episode they have something in their project that they plan on revisiting either later in the episode or in a future episode that they never do. Im not criticizing... they have my project ethic, so it would be hypocritical to do so. They need a co-host. They need a new Dave (though he is irreplaceable).

-----------------
Patrick,

I agree with Tritium, it would be great to see some follow-up to all of the projects that didn't work the first time and need more tweaking.

As for the current Dolby episode--I enjoyed it and i picked up a few tips. Good job.

Mike

[davmoo]

I finally got around to watching this episode. I had to laugh when Patrick described the "room from hell" with windows or doors in every wall, etc. My house is a Victorian style 1880s midwest farm house...and out of 9 rooms (not counting the bathroom or the kitchen) there is not even one room that doesn't have major issues from a sound standpoint. Fortunately, since I'm single, I don't have a spouse approval factor to worry about. So I am thinking about picking one room, I'll cry out "this be the media room!" for all to hear, and then gut it and remove the windows and rebuild the room correctly for sound.

[sembazuru]

I found it informative that speaker placements are based on angles. But, it's easier (and more accurate) to lay things out using a tape measure than a protractor, at least to me. So, I pulled out a rule of thumb that I heard oh-so-many-years-ago to place the front left and rights. Basically it has you place them the same distance apart as you are from an imaginary line between them. Using simple high school Trig (or at least simple for those of us who don't think Trig is a four letter word), and I find that only gets 26.6 degrees, not 30 (probably close enough for KISS methods). Reversing the equation for 30 degrees gives a ratio of 1.155:1 (distance between:distance forward from listener). So, if your couch is 10' from the furthest forward you can/want to place your speakers apart, you should place them 11.55' (11' 6.6") apart. Given various measurement tolerances, that should place each speaker as close to 30degress off of center as possible.

Hopefully this isn't too late to keep Patrick from tearing out what is left of his hair. :-D

(Also remember to keep the speaker wires for the three front channels the same length for phasing issues.) ;-)