How Can 2 Loudspeakers Sound Better Than 5 Or More In A Surround Sound System?

by James Leahy

For high-end music reproduction, 2 full range stereo loudspeakers are the preferred set-up of choice ever since Hi-Fi equipment has been around. Why is this? There are a number of answers to this complex question. Don't be fooled into thinking a surround sound amplifier & loudspeaker package can give you all the benefits of high fidelity sound.

Most music available today, be it on standard redbook CD or SACD is mostly recorded in a 2 channel format known as stereo. Note that here I am not talking about the low grade heavily compressed dts or Dolby Digital music DVD's but pure uncompressed audio. Therefore it is desirable to reproduce the sound in your home in the same format that it was recorded and mixed in.

Also by having a dedicated two channel stereo system you are buying the best components allowable for your budget and only spreading your funds over 2 loudspeakers and 2 amplifier channels, not 5 or more as in a surround sound system. Therefore you can expect a much higher quality of system then would otherwise be the case. It is not the number of speakers you are listening to but the quality of sound that matters. More is definitely not better in this instance. Surround sound should only ever be used for movies, hotels, clubs, concerts or P.A. systems, never high fidelity music reproduction.

The CD's or SACD's contain two channels of sound; these represent the signals from two separate microphones spaced apart in front of the performers. The pickup used in your stereophonic equipment converts these impressions into two sets of electrical impulses and passes them to two separate amplifiers. Hence they go to separate loudspeakers, also spaced apart. You, sitting in front of the loudspeakers, and roughly equidistant from each of them, will have the whole sound picture built up before you, with everything in its right place. If a performer moved across the stage in the original performance you will hear him do so between your loudspeakers. It is hardly necessary to dwell on the vast improvement in realism that is gained in this way over surround sound because it is never mixed correctly. It is similar to the difference between an ordinary `flat' picture and a 'three-dimensional' one, (which again is composed of two separate pictures, taken from different viewpoints).