An Assessment Of Cordless Surround Products

One approach is minimizing the number of speakers by creating virtual speakers. This technique applies signal processing to the sound and adds phase shifts and cues to the sound which would ordinarily be broadcast through the remote loudspeaker. The audio is then sent by the front loudspeakers together with the front speaker audio components. The signal processing is modeled after the human hearing. It utilizes the information about how the human ear can determine the source of sound. The viewer is in effect deceived into believing the audio is coming from a location other than the front speakers. Virtual surround avoids the remote speakers and simplifies the installation and also eliminates long speaker wire runs. Then again, it also has a drawback. The form of each human's ear is somewhat different. Consequently everybody processes sound in a different way. Because the signal processing is based on a standard human ear model, virtual surround will not function equally well for every person dependant upon how much the viewer differs from the standard model. Wireless surround sound products are an additional solution for simplifying home speaker setups and usually have a transmitter module that connects to the source in addition to wireless amplifiers which will connect to the remote speakers. The transmitter will often come with amplified speaker inputs as well as line-level inputs and have a volume control to adjust it to the source audio level. Some wireless systems come with wireless amplifiers that connect to two speakers. This still requires cord runs between the two speakers. Other products come with separate wireless amplifiers for every loudspeaker. The most advanced wireless products employ digital transmission to avoid signal degradation. In multi-channel audio kits, it is crucial to pick a wireless solution with a latency of merely a few milliseconds. This will ensure that the audio of all loudspeakers is in perfect sync. A large latency would lead to an echo effect. This effect would deteriorate the surround effect. Most wireless gadgets operate in the 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz frequency bands. A number of products use the less crowded 5.8 GHz frequency band and consequently have less competition from other wireless gadgets. A different method, which is often referred to as sound bars utilizes side-reflecting loudspeakers. In this case the audio for the remote speakers will be broadcast by separate speakers located at the front at an angle and reflected by walls as to seem to be coming from besides or behind the viewer. The result heavily is dependent upon the interior, especially the shape of the room and the decoration. It will function well for square rooms with no obstacles and sound reflecting walls. However, realistic scenarios often will be different from this ideal and diminish the effect of this solution.

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