There's a good chance you can enjoy DTS surround sound music CDs nowJul 18 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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Before I begin A wonderful thing happened the other day. I posted an introduction to a three part series, to introduce new music formats. It was called The history of the CD and new music formats, a must read for music lovers. As usual I took the opportunity to line up a few advisors in the category of electronics and use their collective heads as my own personal bongo drums. One advisor surferdude7 has a head that sounds hollow and out of tune. He cried out in the comment section Epinions does not require me to own a product to review it! as I slapped his bald head. Many advisors are upset because I'm putting the spotlight on their previously quiet scam. According to these fakes, I'm not worth reading, but I'm sure they'll drop by to leave a comment on time and as expected. Another advisor not worthy of a mention, called me the biggest jerk on epinions. Thanks, I wear my 'jerk' badge with pride. I'm sure these advisors view admitting that they never actually touch the products they review as an olympic event, and probably want a gold medal should they ever mention it in their opinions. Having said this. . . This opinion is dedicated to the readers that trust advisors dkozin, radioguy, surferdude7, soupcraze and others like them, and never catch on to the scam. May all of you one day see the light. I've got the flashlight, all you have to do is supply your own common sense. Moving on It's all happening! With two new high resolution, multi-channel music formats here, (and a third on the way, more on that later) there will be some changes coming in the near future for all music lovers. I will cover all of the new formats in depth, and give the pros and cons. But before I do that, I want to discuss DTS (Digital Theater Systems) surround CDs. Some have called it the poor mans Super Audio CD or DVD-A (DVD audio not to be confused with DVD video). And to some extent that may be true. But I feel that the format should not be dismissed. It is especially important to those that are not inclined to purchase new gear at the moment, and to those that might have modest home theater surround sound systems in their homes now. Many folks with such modest equipment can start enjoying these multi-channel music titles now without any further investment. Okay, I love music and you've got my attention, just what in the hell is dts? Like Dolby Digital surround sound and DTS on DVD movies, DTS surround music CDs can be seen as being very similar. The only real difference worth mentioning is that surround music CDs are just that, CDs not DVDs. The reason I posted this opinion to 'what is a surround receiver' is a simple one. The receiver, the heart of most audio video systems is how 99 percent of you will come to enjoy DTS surround CDs. Two channel CDs Vs. surround sound With your traditional CD you have two channel sound, the left and right channel (speakers) you've all come to love (I think). Surround DTS music is mixed with current home theater systems in mind. The majority of home systems are set up like this. You still retain the trusty left and right speakers, to complement that, you have a center channel that usually finds a home on top of your television set. Also added is a pair of rear or surround speakers. There is also a ‘left’ and a ‘right’ designation for these rear speakers as well. If the listener is in the sweet spot, dead center in front of the TV (the TV being twelve o'clock) the rear speakers would sit just behind the listener at about 4 and 8 o'clock respectively. Of course wife, husband, fish tank and plant issues will throw a wrench into any standard position. But let’s just say they sit somewhere at the rear of the listener(s). Rounding out this systems is a sub-woofer, or a speaker that handles the lowest sounds, like the thump of a T-Rex or the rumble of a train. But a sub-woofer is optional and not really necessary as long as your main left and right speakers are capable of reproducing sounds at the low end. What I have described is a 5.1 channel set-up. Five channels being the left, right, center, left rear and right rear. The point one is the sub-woofer and because sound at the low end is difficult for the human ear to pinpoint, it's not considered a true channel, hence the 'point one'. So if you've seen all this 5.1 stuff on DVDs or in electronics magazines and didn't know what it all meant, well now you know, right? There are 6.1 and 7.1 systems but I will skip that for the sake of simplicity. So what do I need to listen to these DTS music CDs? For those of you that have a surround sound system in your home, whether it be on the cheap or worth thousands of dollars you might own most if not all the equipment necessary. If your audio/video receiver displays the 'dts' logo you're in business my friend. Just pop your DTS surround music CD into your DVD player, your DVD player will simply read it as a regular CD. That digital information is sent via a digital cable either optical (the most common) or coaxial. Once that signal arrives at the receiver, it will decode it and send the appropriate sound to the appropriate speaker. For those of you with such a system there really is no work to be done on your part. For those of you that mainly listen to music you might still be in the game There are I'm sure millions of those cheap Aiwa, Pioneer, and Panasonic mini stereo's out there and basically all of you in the majority of cases are out of luck, regardless of how many speakers your system supports. For the systems that are intended for music you might still have the equipment needed to play DTS CDs. The reason?. It's the market, you can't throw a rock into an electronics store and not hit a surround sound receiver. So the path for the music minded consumer is very similar, you need something to amplify the sound coming from your CD player. So that brings me to the next most popular scenario. Many music only systems still revolve around an audio/video receiver, and this was true in my case up until I purchased my DVD player late in 2000. Receivers with Dolby Digital and DTS decoding are common at $150.00 to $200.00. And don't think that entry level means some skimpy piece of equipment. Technology being what it is means that gear is always getting better, faster, and cheaper. At that price point you can usually count on 80 to 100 watts for each of the five channels (speakers) and enough inputs to handle your CD, DVD, tape, and VCR, and in some cases even more. Bottom line here, those of you that have a receiver at the heart of your music only system check your receiver. The dts logo (always in lower case) is your ticket. If your CD player has a digital output at the rear, you are almost there. How do I know if I have a digital output?. Simply look at the rear of your CD unit. CD players are very uncomplicated at the rear. If it was made before 1999, it will most likely only have two RCA jacks at the rear labeled 'left' and 'right'. A digital output is in the majority of cases labeled 'digital output' and the words 'optical' or 'coaxial' will usually go hand in hand. Optical is the most popular, so if you have that on your unit, the receiver will have to have an optical input, and the same goes for the coaxial variety. Unlike DVD owners, you might not have the surround speaker set-up in your home so more money and lugging some speakers into the house will be necessary. For the technical types, how DTS uses existing equipment and CDs. Well DTS works for the same reason that you can put PC data like games and office programs on CDs that were originally designed for music. Because data is digital you can use it in almost any way imaginable. The good folks at DTS encode regular CDs using their own proprietary encoding scheme. Instead of using those digital ones and zeros for two-channel sound, they have encoded it to contain 5.1 or 6.1 channels of sound. Because the CD is still spinning at the same speed, the amount of data coming off the disc per second remains the same. So some compression techniques and mathematical trickery come into play. If you pop a DTS CD into a regular CD player (yes I tried it) you will simply hear a soft white noise, like the kind you hear when a TV station goes off the air. Okay, give me examples what does all of this really sound like? As examples, three dts titles that I own. Diana Krall Love Scenes (5.1) Sheryl Crow The Globe Sessions (6.1 ES) and Marvin Gaye Forever Yours (5.1). So what sound is coming from what speaker? In the case of The Globe Sessions David Tickle, the man responsible for the 6.1 ES mix did a fine job making use of the additional channels without going overboard. On the opening track My Favorite Mistake the surround mix shows its immediate advantage over the two channel CD. In the dts mix Sheryl's voice sits virtually all alone singing away in the center channel with only a bass line mixed in. In the traditional L & R speakers, her vocals are turned down a bit from the CD version and the instruments are slightly more dominant. Without having to deal with vocals, the left and right speakers can be more dedicated in that respect. In the rear, David used the K.I.S.S system and it worked well. For the most part the rear speakers contain reverb or the echo you might hear in a small venue. On occasion a simple little snare drum or the pluck of a guitar string or background vocal will wander into the rear channels for a little audio spice, but that is thankfully kept to a minimum. So what is the advantage? Well the rear speakers with their usual reverb content (and in some cases crowd noise) add a sense of space sorely missing from the old two channel CD. Another advantage would be the vocals that are usually alone or almost alone in the center channel. How many of you out there have heard your favorite artist singing sans instruments?. I bet most of you have never had the opportunity. To hear a song that is familiar, with only vocals, the exact vocals you have come to know, all naked and alone is a wonderfully eerie experience. As an experiment I disconnected my four speakers (I have no sub-woofer) and left only the center channel intact. I listened to entire DTS albums this way, and I have to say it was an experience. To hear these DTS CDs (all recorded from the original masters) in ways that only engineers got to hear, is a boat load of fun. In the case of Sheryl Crow not all of the songs have her voice sitting all alone in the center channel. But of the three that really have her sitting out there, I learned that her voice, while not the best in the world is incredibly engaging and emotional. On Forever Yours Marvin Gaye sounds wonderful on What's going on and on I heard it through the grapevine. Serious music lovers will get chills hearing things that were previously only reserved for the studio elite. The nuances of a vocalist, the slight pauses, and the artist taking a breath can be heard very clearly in the center channel. These little details are no longer masked by ten different things that are going on in a tradition two channel recording. While these recordings were not really meant to be listened to in this fashion, it is an advantage. With all speakers bumping along, the vocals usually sound more present, uncluttered and unhindered it’s uncanny. My only nit-pick with Forever Yours is that on about half of the tracks, the background vocals are just a tad too strong in the rear channels for my liking. The Diana Krall DTS disc was ultimately very disappointing. The sound is wonderful, and Diana sounds amazing, but what happened in the center channel? Her amazing voice could have run free and wild in the center channel, but Al Schmitt (the man responsible for the 5.1 mix) dropped the ball when he re-mixed this album in 5.1. He went beyond conservative in his use of the center channel. To these ears it sounds as if the center channel is a simple mix of the left and right speaker. Not only that, the audible level appears to be lower in the middle. At normal settings, the center channel almost sounds dead. The main left and right channels sound clean and smooth and the rear channels contain just enough reverb to add space and air. A wonderful recording that could have been great had the center channel been better utilized. Anyone concerned about these quirks, not to worry. Most receivers can adjust the sound levels for the center, and the rear left and right channels. If an album is not mixed to your liking, your receiver can compensate (to a degree) the surround levels/mix. Bottom line for DTS sound quality In the end, even with compression to gain multi-channel sound, it still sounds CD quality, if not slightly better. With the new encoding schemes, they can be much more efficient than what existed when the CD first hit the consumer market. For some time DTS claimed that their discs were 20-bit sound quality (as opposed to the 16-bit sound of the CD) but they don't seem to make that claim anymore. So does it sound like a 20-bit source? I wish I could answer that. There never was a mass-market product that delivered 20- bit sound so I have no comparisons. Where can I find titles and how much The prices for DTS titles range from $17.99 to $24.99, yes it sucks but the truth is that formats that are not common will always cost a premium. The jewel boxes are about 15% larger than the regular CD jewel cases and they are clearly marked on the top ‘DTS digital surround'. You will almost always find them mixed in with DVDs in the DVD music section. They don't really belong there, but lack of understanding by the stores and the fact that only DVD player owners have DTS equipment, (in most cases) causes them to end up there. I have seen these titles at Sam Goody, Best Buy and Tower Records. At Tower Records, they had the DVD-A, Super Audio CDs and DTS discs in their own little section (emphasis on little). I have not seen them stocked elsewhere in my area. But you can always order online at music dot coms. There are currently hundreds of DTS titles available, a majority of them are mainstream artists that we all know like Sting, Marvin Gaye, Steely Dan, the Eagles, Boyz II men etc. I don't think hearing DTS for the first time will have you rolling around on the floor (except maybe for the center channel thing) but if you love music, you most certainly will find new depth in familiar recordings and honestly it's just plain fun. DTS has something in store for the future Once again DTS is slapping Dolby for sitting on their a-s-s-e-s, I will cover this a little more in depth when I cover DVD-A. At this very moment, there is no format that delivers a DVD quality picture and high-resolution multi-channel sound. That is until the never resting folks at DTS made an announcement. They claim to have developed a new encoding scheme that will allow multi-channel 24-bit sound with a sampling rate of 96 kHz along with full motion video (unlike the audio only DVD-A). But that is not here now, and details are sketchy. The only real information given by DTS is that audio equipment with built in decoders is on the way. Dolby might be the “windows” of the DVD audio world, but they sit still as DTS tries to satisfy the demand for what DVD promised and never really delivered; a killer picture and sound. The next opinion in this series will cover DVD-A, a true high resolution, multi-channel format.  |
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