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I don't want to spend the money on 6 speakers for pure listening. I wonder the extra channels would clearly improve the listening experience.
DVD audio standards are still up in the air, but promise (hopefully) to come down soon. For our inaugural question, we want to know what you prefer: fewer channels and longer playing times, or multichannel high-quality sound with shorter playing times.
Surround is very expensive to do right, but wonderful. I would vote for 24/96 at least across the front 3 channels. Maybe the sub and rear channels could be 16/44.1. I will have to trust someone elses ears on that one since I am not on any of the present deciding comittees.
This is really quite a question. It will be many (10+) years before home theater system (5.1) start becoming viable audio systems (we have both, of excellent quality). I think it will take the teen agers of today to grow up with surround systems and become affluent to have 5.1 or something similar to become "high-end" as audio is today. So between now and then I vote for a higher resolution 2 channel standard.
Assuming that a high quality 5.1 DVD does make it out in quantity to the mainstream, I would also need to see a very high quality 5.1 playback system that would not compromise an existing audiophiles 2 channel reproduction. I am concerned with having a center channel speaker and subwoofer between two main speakers that already have an exceer processor speeds coming on the market the solution should be to move to software based systems
The important thing for me is improved fidelity: hence 24/96 without digital reprocessing. Upward compatibility with existing CDs seems vitally important to a fast rollout of the new format. Beyond that, I vote for 5.1 channel 24/96 over two channel 24/96 even though I don't care about more than two channels. I have three reasons. First, fidelity will ultimately catch up with the limits of the format, and five channels will, finally, offer more information than two, even if we have to endure (or discard) years of digitally reprocessed information in the extra-stereo channels). Second, we should try to foresee and avoid another format shift twenty years from now. Finally, the more flexible format gives the marketing guys in the recording industry more ways to make money off the new format, which will speed its ubiquity and the coming of higher fidelity.
There is no reason that a computer based system of converting any of the variuos formats couldn't be implemented for converting the data on a dvd to sound. We have been stranded with the CD given the faster and faster processor speeds coming on the market the solution should be to move to software based systems