A Musical Alternative to 5.1 Surround Sound

= MDG's "2+2+2" DVD-As

A number of audio writers and recording engineers have weighed in on the disadvantages of the THX/Dolby-originated 5.1 channel/speaker setup for music reproduction as opposed to movie soundtracks. AUDIOPHILE AUDITION had a feature on Music Alternatives to 5.1 in our October 2003 issue. While I personally feel Ambisonics is the best music solution for multichannel sound, several engineers and labels have been trying to stay with the obsolete idea of basically one-speaker-per- channel and have been experimenting with keeping the basic L and R frontal speakers and L and R surround speakers where they normally are, but assigning the other two channels differently. Chesky, Telarc and DMP have used either the center channel feed or the LFE subwoofer feed, or both, to feed speakers located high on the sides, on the ceiling, or high up about halfway between the frontal speakers and directly to the sides of the listener (the latter is Chesky’s 6.0 approach. All of these call for using the full range of the LFE channel rather than just a limited low-frequency feed, and of course the center channel is not used at all.

The German record label Dabringhaus und Grimm (abbreviated MD&G or MDG and not to be confused with DGG - Deutsche Grammophon) has an approach that is somewhat akin to Chesky’s and they are doing all their recording with it for release on their series of DVD-Audios. They call it “2+2+2 Recording” - the new speaker locations are directly above the L and R frontal speakers spaced at half the distance the L & R are apart from one another. (The surrounds stay where they are.) The L height speaker is fed the signal from the center channel and the R height speaker is fed the signal from the LFE channel. You have a vertical rectangle of speakers in front plus the surrounds in the sides/rear. Of course this entails some major switching around of connections as well as finding a way to mount the height speakers over the lower frontal speakers. D&G suggests mounting the high speakers facing outward or even on the side walls. In my case, for example, it was impossible to mount them in line vertically, and the height speakers must be about 1.5 feet behind the main speakers.

Since the speaker delay function on my Sunfire preamp doesn’t operate in multichannel analog mode, I can’t use it to equalize the speaker distances. While it would be best to have identical mini-monitors all around, D&G co-founder, engineer, and producer Werner Dabringhaus advises that smaller speakers with similar timbre will work OK. I used stacked pairs of Paradigm Atoms (a la the old Advent ploy) which do sound remarkably similar to my main Celestion SL-600si mini-monitors. And I’m working out a couple of simple switches to change the center channel connection at one amp and to switch the LFE signal from my powered rear sub to another amp powering the R height speaker.

The 2+2+2 technique has been demonstrated by D&G in Europe and Japan and very well received, with publications calling it “a new dimension of music” and “absolute benchmark recordings.” Little has been written about it in North American publications, perhaps because of the extra effort required to set it up and audition it properly. Although D&G says it is really simple, it does take a bit of work and that is why I have procrastinated for many months reviewing these DVD-As myself.

Here is some of D&G’s thinking on this technique: 5.1 is a purpose-made system with only limited application to music reproduction, nor is its sound quality particularly “classical.” And sound reproduction, as with quad, remains two dimensional. Yet since time immemorial we humans have been quipped with a very sensitive sense of direction in the vertical place. We recognize all sounds approaching from outside our field of vision not only from the side but also above us. When we attend a concert we hear the sound of the woodwind players on their raised platform coming in above that of the strings, and the choir is audible behind them, while the organ rises above all the rest... and the master builders of former times were as well aware as the architects of today’s famous concert halls how important reverberation from walls and ceilings is for good acoustics.

W. A. MOZART: “Prague” Symphony KV 504; Recitative and Rondo KV505 Ch’lo mi scordi de te - Non temer, amato bene (Soprano, obbligato Piano & Orch.); Piano Concerto KV 503 in C Major - Bernarda Fink, mezzo/Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne/Christian zacharias, piano & conductor - MDG Gold 2+2+2 Recording

MDG 940 0967- 5 (DVD-A)

I should point out right off the bat that there is something of an access problem with these discs. They all proclaim “no pictures / only music” and that they are completely compatible for stereo or standard 5.1 playback as well as 2+2+2. However, since there is no onscreen navigation I’m not sure I understand how one would access either of these more standard formats. If in 5.1 the center channel was getting the left height signal that wouldn’t be far off, but then the sub would only be receiving the rather subtle left height signal rather than the LFE frequencies.

Musically, these three works focus on Mozart’s life in late l786, when his fortunes had gone downhill a bit and he had to move to a cheaper apartment and work harder. The Prague Symphony was written for premiere in the city where he always found a good reception for his music. It gets a sprightly chamber-sort of treatment from the Lausanne instrumentalists. Zacharias conducts from the piano in the C Major Piano Concerto, which opens with a quarter-hour-long first movement generally living up to its Allegro maestoso marking. Superb performances of all three works here.

There is no doubt that the alternatively-situated front/height speakers provide a great deal more three-dimensionality to music reproduction than do the normal use of the center and LFE channels.

“There is a feeling of being in the concert hall space with the spatial information being evenly spread out and not just in the horizontal dimension.“

 I look forward to hearing some organ concertos reproduced via 2+2+2 - also some works for chorus and orchestra. One of the major advantages of this approach is the widening of the sweet spot. You can move around freely and still have a realistic sound picture of the venue, even to some extend from outside of the main listening area - as with Ambisonics. The effect bore some similarities to Bob Carver’s Sonic Holography circuit, except that approach still has a narrow sweet spot both sideways and front-to-back, even in the latest digital iteration as per my Sunfire preamp. MDG is definitely on to something worthwhile here and I’m sorry I waited so long to get on with the auditioning to pass on the news to our readers!

ROBERT SCHUMANN:
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra; Concert-Allegro with Introduction; Introduction and Allegro appassionato - Christian Zacharias, piano and conductor/Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne -

MDG Gold 2+2+2 Recording

MDG 940 1033-5 (DVD-A)

This gold disc (all the MDG discs seem to be gold pressings) has a 96K/24 bit designation on it which I didn’t see on the other discs...

The combo 2+2+2/5.1/stereo disc works fine. My one beef is beginning to sound like a broken record: the piano sounds 50 feet wide; having the vertical information doesn’t seem to remedy this frequent situation. MDG has built in yet another option here - if you have no DVD-A player but do have an SACD/DVD player, there are six-channel 48K uncompressed PCM tracks here which will give you almost as good fidelity as the 96K DVD-A (MDG does not use MLP data reduction). You could also do the same with just a DVD video player if it has the six-channel analog out jacks, but how many do?

Oh yes, the music.

“This seemed like the freshest and least hackneyed Schumann Piano Concerto version I had auditioned in a very long time.“

I don’t know if that was due to the chamber orchestra approach, Zacharias sparkling playing, or the rich and spatial recording, but this is quite a thrilling musical experience. The other two almost unknown Schumann piano-orchestra works are both lovely and deserve more hearings. This would be a definite choice for any lovers of piano concertos whether or not you set up the 2+2+2 playback orientation.

VIVALDI: Concertos and Chamber Music = Concerto in g RV 531 for 2 cellos; Concerto in G RV 436 for Recorder; Sonata in d “La Folia” RV 63 for 2 violins; Concerto in D RV 564 for 2 violins and 2 cellos; Concerto in a RV 108 for Recorder & 2 violins; Sonata in c RV 83 for violin, cello -

Musica Alta Ripa -

M DG Gold 2+2+2 Recording

MDG 909 0927-5 (DVD-A)

A fine program with plenty of variety,

“played with a fresh and invigorating brio and presented with great realism via the 2+2+2 technique.“

Musica Alta Ripa is an authentic instrument ensemble which has won many prizes for previous early music recordings, but none of those Baroque violins will get on one’s nerves as on many standard CDs because there’s no digititus in the strings here. The three major concertos featuring two violins include the string orchestra and are rarely heard among his works. The double cello concerto is the only such from the Red Priest, and it ventures into more unusual tonal territory than one is used to hearing from Vivaldi - almost as though he pickup some tricks from Gesualdo. Although all the performers are presumed seated at the same level, the addition of the vertical element to the soundspace opens up and enhances the sound picture considerably. Interesting: I just discovered that my Sunfire Theater Grand III was set on automatic and during long pauses between works it often switched suddenly from the 8-channel analog function to the 5.1 DVD video function. No way this could be missed, because all the realism and depth of the music went away and it became a flat and opaque sound picture.

John Sunier (www.audaud.com)

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