CHAPTER 15

Multichannel Options for Music and Movies

In the beginning, there was mono. Everything we heard was stored in and reproduced from a single channel. In those early days, listeners enthused, and critics applauded the efforts of Edison, Berliner, and others as being the closest possible to reality. They were wrong, but a revolution in home entertainment had taken place.

It would be 50 years before stereo, the minimalist multichannel system, would emerge. With two channels came dramatic improvements in the impressions of direction and space. Once we got past the exaggerated “ping-pong,” “hole-in-the-middle” problems of many early recordings, listeners enthused, and critics applauded the efforts of artists and recording engineers as being ...

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