jerry & dejan, i have an ambient surround-sound processor - the jvc xpa-1010. it was discontinued several years back; s'phile even reviewed it & gave it a "class a" rating, for whatever that's worth. designed to be used w/conventional 2-channel recordings, it has four channels: two ambient speakers to be placed on the walls behind the main speakers, above & to the outsides of them; the other two placed on the wall behind you, in the same layout. jvc used dsp and four microphones, placed to mimic the placement of the surrounds in your room, to map twenty different venues thruout the world. included are warious concert halls, outdoor pavillion, jazz club, stadium, a coupla different churches, theatres, etc... each has been programmed into the processor. a dizzying array of adjustments are possible, from wolume, delay, reverb, your room size, etc. (all the set-ups, btw are individually adjustable for each venue.) complicated to setup, really, but once done, it's pretty much set & forget. there's really only two perameters ya would mebbe wanna play with, once initial set up is complete: the wolume, & a point-source/spread source. ya would choose point source, for example, for a quartet, & spread source for an orchestra.
this device really is quite effective - it does provide a sense of ambience & spaciousness, w/o intruding on to the main two channels. (you can run the main speakers totally unprocessed, which is the way to go - using the processor for the mains only gains ya the flexibility to use one single wolume control, but the sonic compromise is not worth it. and, besides, it's not really an issue - ya yust use a second remote to control the wolume of the surrounds. and, once ya set the surrounds' wolume, the main preamp controls the wolume of everyting.) you cannot actually hear the surrounds, but ya can feel the soundstaging collapse a bit when ya turn it off.
my wife really likes this a lot. i *used* to like it a lot, when i had a solid state preamp.
now, i use it once in a while, but, to be honest, i get such good soundstaging w/my present set-up, that it's really not essential. i'd suspect the jvc processor would be more useful in a smaller room, where the room itself would add more of its own unwanted sonic signature - i am fortunate to have a big room, & hardly any early reflections at the listening area.
for unobtrusive ambient surround processing, that doesn't need special recordings, i don't see how these things can be beat... and, they still were a marketing flop... yust not enuff interest in it amongst audiophiles, which is a tiny segment of the audio industry in the first place... i have no intention of ever selling mine, tho - it took forever for me to find one on the used market at a price i could afford, and i don't know if i will always be blessed w/such a big room - ya never know if & when ya may be moving to new digs!
doug s.
