What are stereo, surround sound and Dolby sound effects?

What are stereo, surround sound and Dolby sound effects?

As people continue to pursue high-quality sound effects, more and more terms such as stereo, 3D stereo, surround sound, and Dolby sound effects continue to appear in the ears of consumers. Here is a brief introduction to these new terms. .

stereo

Since mono lacks positional positioning of sound, the emergence of stereo technology has completely changed this situation. The sound is assigned to two independent channels during the recording process, thus achieving good sound localization effect.

Cleer Stage supports 3D surround sound

The stereo effect actually uses modern electroacoustic technology to adjust the volume and phase of each frequency component of each group of speakers in the left and right channels separately without changing the position of the left and right channel speakers, so that each group of speakers is in a different position on the front Psychological "sound images" appear.

Cleer Halo stereo sound

Stereo technology is particularly useful in music appreciation. Listeners can clearly distinguish the direction in which various instruments come from, making the music more imaginative and closer to a live experience. Stereo technology is widely used in a large number of sound cards and has become an audio standard with far-reaching influence. To this day, stereo sound is still the technical standard followed by many products.

3D stereo

The difference from ordinary stereo is that it separates the heavy bass and subwoofer parts with frequencies below 200Hz in the left and right channels through a low-pass filter and sends them to a single-channel central amplifier and speaker output. Because bass above 200Hz is basically non-directional. Therefore, the angle and position of the speaker can be moved at will without affecting the listening.

3D stereo system

surround sound

Compared with stereo sound, surround sound adds two more speakers placed at the back, so that each set of speakers has a psychological "sound image" not only in the front but also in different positions behind, forming an all-round spatial three-dimensional sense of the sound. .

Cleer Crescent's ultimate stereo surround sound installation

The surround sound effect is actually the result of delaying the sound for a certain period of time and then mixing it with the undelayed original sound to enhance the richness and charm of the sound. The longer the delay time, the larger the echo space will be. This is the meaning of the so-called "reverberation lingering for three days".

Surround sound is characterized by a sense of direction, that is, the listener can feel the direction of the sound source; a sense of surround, that is, the listener feels surrounded by the sound source; and a sense of expansion, that is, the sound source spreads around and is reflected by objects. a feeling of. When listening to a surround sound work, we find ourselves surrounded by the music, as if we were in the space in which the recording was made. We are no longer spectators, if not participators, then at least internal observers.

Listeners can be surrounded by sound or, through production methods, observe a piece of music in a 360° panoramic manner. Surround sound will have a very profound impact on music. In surround sound recording, the localization of sound and the shaping of the environment are achieved using different methods than in stereo. At the same time, distance information will also show new characteristics.

     

surround sound system

Dolby sound

The full name of Dolby Sound is Dolby Pro Logic, which is a surround sound system developed by the American Dolby Company. It synthesizes four-channel stereo sound into two channels through specific encoding methods during recording, that is, the original left channel (L), right channel (R), center channel (C), surround channel ( S) are encoded and synthesized into LT and RT composite two-channel signals. During playback, the encoded two-channel composite signals LT and RT are restored to the encoded left, right, center and surround signals through the decoder. Four independent signals that are independent of each other are amplified and input into the left speaker, right speaker, center speaker and surround speaker respectively.

Cleer Crescent, a set of 10 speaker arrays

Setting up Dolby sound effects through software can bring a better audio-visual experience. Of course, if you can connect the audio source to 5.1 speakers, the audio-visual enjoyment will be extraordinary. It gives people an immersive feeling and is widely used in home theaters.

Simply put, Dolby Sound is an excellent audio processor software designed to provide better sound effects. However, in addition to Dolby software, Dolby Sound also requires the support of speakers. It requires the use of left speakers, right speakers, and center speakers. speakers and surround speakers, so true Dolby sound effects require four speakers for a perfect combination.

Dolby surround sound movie system

Home Theater 7.1:

2 front speakers, 2 side speakers, 2 rear speakers, 1 center speaker, 1 subwoofer.