Breaking the 5.1 Barrier...

Tom Holman has always pushed the envelope of sound, and now he is at it again with 10|2, the next generation surround sound system. With several installations already in place, and more on the way, the future looks bright for 10|2. Get versed, then get immersed, by clicking for more info.
[Link: tmhlabs.com]
Dougofthenorth (start getting those extra amps & speakers boys!)

There was an article in one of the HT mags several months ago about this, and Tom's first demo room has been in use for almost a year, so it's relatively old news.

Being able to do it in a test or highly customized environment is a long way from it being a mass produced product.

Steve; If you had read the link & updated your own old info you would see it has gone beyond the TEST phase. 3 have been already built & more planned.

From what I remember reading about this about a year ago was that the 5.1 layout was basically the same, except that the speakers were placed at two vertical levels, one high and one low.

In other words, there were two speakers at the typical locations, one near the ceiling and one near the floor. This added an 'up'n'down' quality to the spread.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Larry; [Link: dolby.com]
shows the setup
Dougofthenorth

Nope sorry not interested no thank you.. Take it away...

When will this ever stop.... I don't have room for more
speakers... next it will be 32.5 and then 90.8 and with
this new system comming out from some unknown company
that has 256 front firing speakers that do the whole
Psycoacoustic Surround thing... Stop the Insanity! :)

Unless we all go to Bose (boo, hiss), I think I'll have to pass. There's no way I could get a setup like that WAF certified... :)

Doug-
Sorry you felt the need to get defensive about your post. My reply wasn't intended to evoke that type of response.

FYI, I HAD ready the link, and I HAD updated my info. If you would have read my post, you would have seen that I mentioned not only tests, but also "highly customized" installations, which is what Tom has done in his 3 installs.

My point was this is a long way from being any sort of accepted standard, and maybe even further away from being easy to purchase for the more typical consumer. My current receiver is a Yamaha RX-V1. It is marketed as 8.1. It adds a center rear surround, and two front effect speakers to achieve the 8.1 "rating". So 10.2 isn't that far fetched.

So, if you felt I was attacking your original post, I'm sorry. However, in my opinion, 10.2 isn't really big news,just a logical progression. With the availability of DSP chips that can be programmed to do just about anything with the sound, anything can (and probably will) be done. Remember though, more isn't necessarily better. :)

Steve; Apology not needed, as I didn't take offense, but thanks for your concern, & sensitivity.
RE: "highly customized" I have learned of late it appears that other than an "untweekable" Pre/pro/recvr (if any are still being made!) all of the current setups require "highly customized" installations- n'est pas?. I went to your link & that was self evident! - nice setup!
When I refer to 10.2 I mean discrete with regards to SOURCES. Since the only presently available format is 5.1 (except for a FEW commercial 6.1 film sources) I was rather commenting on the next step seems to be 10.2 & this was the final end result of quite a few posts here lately (mine included) looking for concrete proof & postings (done mostly in humour) as to where we are heading. It also included the DPLII DTS Neo6 et al!.
RE: RX-V1 [the Yam (sweet potatoe)]
- nice recvr good choice! (bias- MOI?)
I would rather call it (I think I finaly got this right) 5.1, with the following Matrixed: 6.1, 7.1 with xtra Rear centre, 8.1 with xtra Front & Rear centres. (+2) for the Yam proprietary Front effects & add an xtra sub & voila - 8.2(+2). add 2 front subs as well 8.4(+2).
(Credits to Mike Riley for the (+2)& sweet potatoe, Larry, Matt, & Bruce for the rest.)
As for length of time for 10.2? I wouldn't have a clue myself. but given the speed of current tech ...
Thanks again Steve & hope you & family are having a good one!
Dougofthenorth


This message was edited by Dougofthenorth on 12/26/01 11:04.07.