Music Engineering, 2nd Edition

11

Space Odyssey – Stereo and spatial sound

Stereo

When listening to music on a two-channel stereo audio system, a sound ‘image’ is spread out in the space between the two loudspeakers. The reproduced image thus has some characteristics in common with the way the same music is heard in real life – that is, with individual instruments or voices each occupying, to a greater or lesser extent, a particular and distinct position in space. Insofar as this process is concerned with creating and re-creating a ‘sound event’, it is woefully inadequate. First, the image is flat and occupies only the space bounded by the loudspeakers. Second, even this limited image is distorted with respect to frequency. (There exists an analogy with chromatic aberration ...