From the October 1994 issue of HOME THEATER TECHNOLOGY 
If You Like What You See Here, Don't Miss The Real Thing!
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Reality Sings

ELPs singer/bassist continues his never-ending quest for home-entertainment perfection.

by Greg Lake

If youre anything like me, you remember the excitement you felt on the day you acquired your first real hi-fi system. Do you recall the feeling as each box was pried open and its contents displayed on the living-room floor? There you stood, master of all you surveyed, with a whole new world 
literally at your feet. You could only dream of the possibilities afforded to the lucky owner of such monolithic and resplendent black boxes.
After retrieving the last piece of packing foam from under the couch, perhaps you paused to catch your breath. This was a good time to pour a glass of wine, sit back, and bask for a moment in the warmth and promise of the untold enjoyment you were about to experiencejust as soon as you got your new system hooked up.
Thats when reality began to intrude, quickly dimming the honeymoon glow. After examining jack-festooned back panels in the 
forlorn hope that everything would somehow become glaringly clear, you were finally forced to excavate the owners manuals from where they lay buried under a mountain of packing material. Then came the manual-reading ceremony, accompanied by the obligatory squinting, brow furrowing, and cursing. After realizing that every possible permutation but yours was covered, you tossed the manuals back into their boxes in disgust, and connected the components the way you just knew was right all along.
Finally, there it stood in all its glory, lights ablaze and ready to go. Never mind the hum. That can be sorted out later, you thought to yourself. The magic moment was now at hand. This is it: power on and press Play! Oh sweet joy, it works! (Well, one channel does, anyway.) Ah yes, those were truly halcyon days.
Since then, of course, weve been obliged to undergo, almost yearly, the new-lamps-for-old ritual. Our old gear, rather like a distant and deceased relative, is laid to rest in a place set aside for those who have passed on, while the new gear is paraded in, with all the attendant ceremony and formality that so befitted its predecessors. 
Why do we do it? What motivates us to be continually drawn to this never-ending quest for home-entertainment perfection? The answer is simple. At the most basic level, we all enjoy being stimulated in one way or another by the performing arts. Furthermore, we like to be so stimulated in the comfort of our own homes. And the closer an entertainment experience comes to reality, the greater its emotional and intrinsic value. As a result, we are always on the lookout for better and better 
systems that let us derive the most reality for our home-entertainment dollar.
When one begins to look deeper, however, the whole matter becomes a little more complex. To one degree or another, we are all victims of desensitization. This applies to almost everything in life; if you experience something over and over again, you will eventually become desensitized.
For over three decades now, we have been listening to music recorded in two-channel stereo. Eventually, the subconscious mind begins to tire of this unrealistic, two-dimensional representation. The monitor of the mind cries out for sonic reality.
Over the years, we have attempted to compensate for stereos lack of sonic reality by employing a variety of enhancement techniques, including DSP, equalization, noise reduction, etc. Of course, all of these inventions are brilliant and valid in their own right. But however brilliant they might be, they still fail to find a way past the sentry that stands guard at the gates of the perceptive mind, forbidding entry to all impostors. Deep down inside, whether you are aware of it or not, your inner mind simply cannot accept a two-dimensional representation of sound as reality.
This failure to convince the subconscious is a fundamental weakness of stereo audio reproduction. It stands to reason that if a sound is totally convincing, your emotions will respond accordingly. If we could transcend stereos limitations and provide a more 
realistic, all-encompassing soundfield, the intensity of feeling derived from music would be multiplied many times over, not to mention the impact of audio/ video material.
Such an system now exists: It is called Dolby Surround Sound. This system sends separate audio information to three speakers located in front of the listener (right, left, and center) and two speakers behind or to the side of the listener (right and left surround). In its 
current incarnation, both surround speakers receive exactly the same signal. Also, the center and surround information is encoded in a standard stereo signal. This lets you play the music on a standard stereo system. 
In the near future, an extension of Dolby Surround Soundcalled Dolby Surround Digitalwill enhance the illusion of reality even further. Music in Dolby Surround Digital consists of five completely independent, full-frequency-range channels of information plus an additional low-frequency channel for the subwoofer. As a result, this system is sometimes called 5.1. With Dolby Surround Digital, musicians have complete control over the apparent location of each musical part in the 360 soundfield. 
Many musiciansincluding myself with Emerson, Lake, and Palmerhave started to record CDs using the current Dolby Surround format. If you have a Dolby Pro Logic home-theater system, but havent yet experienced music recorded in Surroundand I dont mean film soundtracks, but actual, honest-to-God music recordings mixed specifically for Surroundyou are in for a real treat. These discs will certainly give you a new and revitalized perspective on the art of music, and help tear down the wall of desensitization built up by a lifetime of listening to stereo.
In my next column, I will take a look at the dramatic effect of multi-channel sound recording on the music of tomorrow from both the creative and production/distribution sides of the recording-studio glass.
In the meantime, drop me a line co Home Theater Technology, 20700 Ventura Blvd., Suite 100, Woodland Hills, CA 91364, and let me know how you feel about music in the surround-sound age.

 1994 Home Theater Technology Magazine

From the October 1994 issue of HOME THEATER TECHNOLOGY 
If You Like What You See Here, Don't Miss The Real Thing!
Subscribe Today To HOME THEATER TECHNOLOGY Magazine
On Newstands everywhere or 
Call (800) 264-9872 To Subscribe - $23.95 For A Full Year

