At 08:49 03/04/2012, Ronald C.F. Antony wrote: >Frankly, I have ZERO interest in 2nd and higher-order Ambisonics, >because anything beyond a 5.1/4.0 setup is impractical in any home >listening environment for 90%+ of consumers, particularly if the >speakers and amps are supposed to be of a quality that provide for the >homogenous sound field that Ambisonics asks for. An 8.1 home setup >with 6 cheesy cardboard surround effects speakers and two decent >stereo front speakers isn't going to be enjoyable, and four nice >speakers already cost more than most people can afford.
I have to agree with this. I have five smallish but decent B & W speakers (4 off DM603-S3 and the equivalent center unit) and that cost $2,500, which seems to me to be enough. Add the cost of a decent multichannel power amplifier and DVD/SACD player and that's another $1,500. Stitching it all together I use an RME FF800, which is admittedly slight overkill, but it allows me to play wav files from a laptop in surround. Total investment for what I regard as a fairly modest home system is over $6,000. Not peanuts, even today!
David _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound