Interesting site for you audiophiles (Audiophile, not pedophile, what were you thinking???).

A new way to encode surround sound that will play just fine on regular headphones.

Check it out (One of those work-day time wasters.)

BinAural Just click the demos to d/l the sound files (MP3 format for those with filters on their connection at work)

 

I read an article about this before, it's quite interesting. But for me.....The more speakers the better

 

Binaural is not new. It's been around for decades. The traditional method was to record sound using an artificial head with microphones placed in the ear canals.

These days it can be done with normal stereo or surround material and a digital signal processor that simulates the effects of the head and ears, and ideally, the room.

I know a fair bit about this, being the developer of Dolby Headphone (http://www.dolby.com/dolbyheadphone). This technology has been exclusively licenced from my company (http://www.lake.com) by Dolby Laboratories for further licencing in consumer electronics and computers around the world. Naturally, Dolby Headphone is by far the best of the available headphone surround sound systems, or Dolby would never have put their name to it. I have never heard of the people you linked to....

You will start to see Dolby Headphone in MD, MP3, DVD and AV receiver systems in the very near future. The first MD portable with Dolby Headphone has been released in Japan, the Sharp MD ST-880. Dolby Headphone has also been standard in the DVD player applications that come with high end PCs for some time, including those made by Dell, Sony, Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, Packard Bell and so on.

For times when speakers are not available, or when you don't want to disturb your neighbours, Dolby Headphone is a killer application. You won't believe your ears the first time you hear it.

 

When I used to work for Hughes Aircraft, one of our research divisions found a way to play back 3D sound by using only two speakers. They spun off that division and called it SRS. That SRS technology is actually in my Sony TV set.

 

Disclaimer: What follows is my opinion and not that of my company.

I don't mean to be rude, but SRS is pure marketing. The "technology" is a bit of a joke among industry insiders. Basically, they just boost the difference between the speaker signals at mid to high frequencies. It's all analog or digital simulations of analog systems. You also need to sit directly between the speakers to get any effect at all, and it screws up the equalisation of your signals.

Dolby Headphone is nothing like that. The effect is genuine and at least as good as 5 discrete speakers; better because the simulated room acoustic is far better than anyone's real listening room. What it does is basically impossible using 2 speakers, you need headphones.

 

I kind of knew this stuff wasn't very good. I wasn't pointing out the fact that it was a good technology. I remember when we had a demo of it and it wasn't that impressive. I think GM (parent company of Hughes) was going to put the SRS thing into all of their cars. Not sure if they did that or not.