2 Channel Stereo

In my previous post I talked about going to the Utah Symphony Concert with Hilary Hahn.  On my way home listened to a Hilary Hahn recording I had in my car. Apparently I didn't get enough of her at the concert. Of course the audiophile in me started comparing the experience of listening to performance at a concert to that of listening to a recording, particularly in the car. It also got me to thinking about 2 channel stereo. 2 channel stereo is the dominant way we listen to music since its advent. However the experience of listening to music in stereo can vary greatly depending on how you are listening to it.

Back to my comparison of the concert venue, vs the car. In the concert hall, the source of the sound is obviously in front of me, and that is where my ears tell me the sound is coming from. And were I to do this, I could point to where the different instruments are with my eyes closed. In my car however I have speakers in front of me, to the sides of me, and behind me. I might be able to detect one instrument is dominant on the right or the left, but certainly have no perception of the placement of the instrument in a 3 dimensional space.

For classical music or other "acoustic" music performances, car audio does a rather poor job of "recreating" the experience. The reason 2 channel stereo still dominates recorded music, the ability to create a stereo image of the sound in front of, as if were coming from the stage. Unfortunately most people today never experience this when listening to music.

Most people are typically listening to music in their cars, on their iPods through not very good headphones, a small speaker system such as an iPod dock , or from their computer. None of these will create a stereo image with a deep soundstage in an attempt to transport you back to the concert venue. Well it can be done to a point with computer speakers, but most people don't have the proper set up to achieve this. Additionally most people aren't really "listening" to the music, they have it on as background noise while doing something else.