Surround sound.. which brand come out with it first?

 

Bronze Member
Username: Shane24

Post Number: 50
Registered: Mar-07
yeah, which spk brand had come up the surround sound spks and when or was it a collective of brands that just come up with the idea?
 

Gold Member
Username: Arande2

Extreme SQ FTW

Post Number: 2040
Registered: Dec-06
I thought that somewhere back in time people started putting their speakers behind them and lowering the level to add a spacious feeling to their stereo system.

I guess I'm not really sure.
 

Gold Member
Username: Touche6784

USA

Post Number: 1183
Registered: Nov-04
shane i have a suggestion for you. why don't you use google first to answer some of you more basic questions, then come back here. you are asking many questions that can be answered simply with some effort on your side.
 

Gold Member
Username: Artk

Albany, Oregon USA

Post Number: 4409
Registered: Feb-05
Well said Christopher.
 

Platinum Member
Username: Jan_b_vigne

Dallas, TX

Post Number: 10095
Registered: May-04
.

Speaker companies didn't come up with the idea of surround sound. Speaker companies responded to the lead of the electronics manufacturers. Back in the day - Bell Labs were the first to experiment with additional channels in the 1930's at a time when the program material being sold to consumers was still strictly monophnoic. The 1950's and '60's saw Paul Klipsch demonstarting phantom channels based on the Bell Labs research of two decades earlier. The effort was primarily meant to establish a better front array rather than add rear ambience, but technically Klipsch would be the first speaker manufacturer to promote multichannel sound for home audio reproduction.


If you pick up the current issue of Stereophile (April), you'll find a brief discourse on the history of suround formats for the home, both active and passive systems. The genesis for the Ambisonics system and the Hafler DynaQuad were derived formats which focussed on the electronics end of the problem though Dynaco sold speakers that could be placed as surround or center channel. SQ and QS matrixed surround were developed by the Japanese electronics compnaies as was CD4 technology in the early 1970's. At the time a consumer interested in surround formats just bought more of the same speakers for the rear as they used in front. A half dozen electronic and speaker companies, including Advent and Infinity, entered the market a few years after the analog "quad" formats sank with early digital, bucket brigade delay systems. The intention was certainly that the consumer would buy the speaker manufacturer's products to use with their digital delays. In the early 1980's Ray Dolby sold his surround formatting concept to the movie industry and Dolby Surround entered the consumer market when HiFi VCR's were made available in the early 1980's. By that time VHS was the tape format of choice and JVC is responsible for the development and marketing of that format. The consumer still was simply buying more speakers of a generically similar type to make the system work.


When Dolby Pro Logic was introduced in the late 1980's, a center channel was added to the matrix and speaker companies responded by building the first center channel speaker designed to sit atop a TV rather than be free standing units as the early Klispch and Dyna electronics intended.


If you want a strict technical answer, Dynaco was the first electronics and speaker manufacturer to sell a speaker which could be intended as a compliment to their surround format. I suspect you are too young to even know who David Hafler was and your memories of surround sound begin with Star Wars. In that case, place "center channel speaker" into your search engine. You should find several companies taking credit for being first among the many.


.
 

Bronze Member
Username: Shane24

Post Number: 53
Registered: Mar-07
thnks for the info jan vigne.. appreciate it..
« Previous Thread Next Thread »



Main Forums

Today's Posts

Forum Help

Follow Us