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Re: Surround Playback Recommendations

I do appreciate your attempt to set things straight, and the document you have linked is indeed a very useful document, and one that I've referenced in trying to set up my own system.

However, you may want to think in terms of the possible confusion, or even anger (witness Skeptic's posts a little further down in this forum) amongst consumers, that may be generated as a result of your post.

The great advantage of stereo is that there is a well known "standard" for configuring stereo playback that is almost intuitive. You line up two speakers in front of you, you make sure they are equidistant from you, and you wire them up in phase. "Toe in" and speaker placement are simply refinements.

The "message" that your post sends to consumers is that maybe we've all been using the "wrong" (or at the very least, non-optimal) configurations for surround music listening, and even worse, possibly different configurations are required for surround music vs home theatre. Some people may react negatively to your message, no matter how well intentioned it is, and it has the risk for further marginalising surround music and disenchant consumers from investing in surround hardware.

Many people I know have spent upwards of $100,000 on surround configs (including dedicated, custom built rooms), and they've tried their best to emulate ITU. To be told now that perhaps they can get better sound if only they have known better, well, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them may regard this as slap on the face from an industry that has been well known for shooting themselves in the foot.

Sorry for my negative post, but news like this should be communicated carefully. Why have you stayed silent all these years and only spoke up now? If you and everyone else has been mixing to a "different standard" for the last five years, how about telling people about it. I noticed the Grammy document was only released last year.

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  Kimber Kable  

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