SRS Circle Surround

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I emailed Canteres about their product and William Dunn replied that the product was not longer avaialable. He said they may produce more in the future. He must have sold his entire production.

Cheers

Norm
 
Haven't had the time to hear Circle Surround as yet, but I'm still a big fan of my good ole' Marantz Vari Matrix circuit in my Quadradial amplifier. I have the old boy retrofitted into my 5.1 input. Nothing extracts more ambience than than. It's front minus back giving whatever ambience was in the recording.
 
I just got the CSII plug-in working on my HTPC. I'll do a detailed audition this weekend, but it does sound good so far.

So far it looks like the QSD-1 is the favorite synthesizer, with a few championing CS and Tate.

I don't have the QSD-1, but would like a center and sub out too. I'll report back later.

Dan in Spokane
 
Norm, I will have an ISP HTD 6.1 within a week and hope to compare our findings. Mr. Waller indicated to me that his main interest was maintaining lateral stereo seperation all around. If he has maintaned front to back seperation and tranparency, that will be interesting.
 
Please report your findings! What can you compare it to? I'd like to know more about it.

Dan in Spokane
 
I ordered a HTD 6.1 and will be testing it out next week. ESPN uses CS for NBA and NHL broadcasts. CS decodes best on my Cantares SSP-1 UHJ mode. The SSP-1 is very transparent with clean surrounds. It also has good sound from the sides to the back. Movies using the SQ mode are good, but do not have the diectionality of a good full logic decoder. I will compare the ISP to SSP-1 in my next E-mail.
 
Hey Ambio, This is great! ....Three HTD's undergoing the multi-ear test at the same time. By the way, have you by any chance listened to the CS encoded discs from DMP like "Big Band" or "The Great Fantasy Adventure Album" from Telarc through your SS1! The thing that struck me about CS was how close the reverb was to practically all of my Nimbus UHJ discs. Big....Big spaces. Just wondering?
Dwight
 
I know everyone is insterested in hearing Ambio's report on a direct comparison. I don't have a ambisonics decoder of any kind and would like to know the comparisons.

BMP has about 30 titles in CS. Together,the record companies have released about 100 titles. I read an article a year or so ago from Paul Jung (BMP) who is considered to be a master mixer. He said CS had the most natural soundfield of all the systems that were available at that time.

ESPN announced ALL their sporting events will be broadcast in CS starting now.

Cheers

Norm

Cheers

Norm
 
This decoder is great for getting quad from stereo. Much better than the RM.The Enhanced stereo mode is best with most music sources.However, some sound better using UHJ (Ambisonic), SQ, or Movie. Movies sound best in the SQ which gives better directional sound.There is actually side sounds from some sources. No logic means no pumplng, but a more subtle directional sound for movies. It has high transperancey with low noise. I have heard all the matrixes except the Tate and CSII and I believe this is the best so far. I am buying a ISP decoder to compare.
 
Wow thanks for the interest and info. I use mostly UHJ recordings, and decode off FM and SAT, but I will buy some CS CDs to see how they sound on SSP-1 and the new ISP.

It is very interesting to hear that the ambiance on CS is similar to the UHJ. This means there may be a similar effect. The ESPN CS sounded best in the UHJ mode. CS may be a real winner !

I need some help for the test. Does anybody know how I can hook up two decoders to a reciever with six inputs for a decoder as well as one tape input and output so I can compare them at the same time without unpluging one and then pluging in the other ?
 
Ambio, My HTD has not been shipped yet, and I'm now unclear when they're going to ship! I've just e-mailed ISP to clarify the situation. Ambio, did you get a shipping confirmation?
Dwight
 
Dwight -

I ordered my HTD on April 25 and it was shipped April 30 I will recieve it tomorrow. I e-mailed Buck & he e-mailed me the the tracking number.

ISP is a small outfit from the number of employees listed on the web. I think they are pretty busy. Just E-mail Buck at home. He always replies or call him.

I called him today on the possibilty of a two decoder switcher. He said he would think about it. Many of us who use two decoders would want one.

I was kind of worried also about the delays. I think this will be worth the wait !


 
Ambio, Buck apologized for not telling me that the unit had shipped on May 2nd!!!!!! .....I am scheduled for a May 8th delivery......I am sooooooooooo happy!....but you must not keep another brother in the dark! I expect initial impressions!
Dwight
 
Dwight,my intial impression: is this is a sweet sounding with very good seperation front to back & amazingly clear clean highs on my Yamaha. No over brightness..

In a rainstorm scene rain was in front of you & could be heard clearly in back . This is really surround sound. Cinema very good as well as music. No listener fatique so far.

Well built with gold plugs. I am using RS Fusion Cables for clear & clean sound. So far I audition with SAT movies, radio, analog FM and some CD. DVDs next. All sound fine. ESPN NBA sounded like you were there. Squeaky sounds off floor were clear as a bell. I think you will like this. A future report will compare this to my SSP-1.
 
Ambio, Thank you for an initial sound report! I hope I'll be home tomorrow when my ISP unit is supposed to arrive! I'm in my car most of the day...that's showbiz!
Dwight
 
Played around with the Circle surround in my home theater, and it doesn't do much for me. It's not bad, just watered down compared to Vario Matrix and Tate II.

I got my Tate hooked up for the first time in a long while, and I'm in love with its ability to extract such a discrete sound field. DPLII just doesn't compare. Yeah, it can pump, but only on certain material. Luckily it doesn't seem to pump on tough to decode material for other synthesizers. Of course one of my favorite albums, Boston, is not that wide of a stereo mix to start with, and decodes anemicly usually. But with the Tate it really opens up the mix, and doesn't sound faked either. I've been listening all night, and I don't feel like I need to wait with baited breath for releases in DVDA or SACD Mch!

Its tough to have the resouces to have all the best decoders to have in one place to do a proper shootout. Maybe we should select a group of songs, and have everyone use their best setups to make DTS CDs off of them, and do a round robin style shootout?

Take it easy!

Dan in Spokane;)
 
Dwight, the ISP also does a great job on UHJ Ambisonic
CDs. Very good ambience retrieval on stereo sources similar to Ambisonics.

Almost discrete on some sources.Gets surround even from old stereo movies. The best Cinema decoder I have heard and excellent on music sources.

This is a third generation decoder from the creator of CircleSound. A bonus is that it is designed and manufactured in the USA by a small business. I hope to hear from you soon to see what your findings are.
 
Dan, are you comparing your Circle sound HTPC plug in, you talked about in an earlier post compared to your full quad system with an external QS decoder ?

I have the PC Circle Sound on my HTPC & I also does not impress me compared to my 6 speaker with sub home system using the ISP HTD 6.1 Circle Sound II type decoder.
 
My pc is a Home Theater PC and hooked into my sound system. I use a Denon 4802 receiver, B&W NT series speakers all around, and a REL Storm III sub. The soundcard is a M-Audio Revolution 7.1. If the software plugin is representative of CS-II, then I was underwhelmed. Of course, I am comparing it to Tate II, QRX9001 QS, and Fosgate Model 4 (my favorite so far), all which give a very discrete quad-like sound field. If I compare it to DPL-II, then it compares favorably. I am primarily interested in discreteness of the soundfield. If you want to talk accuracy, or lack of artifacts, the DPL-II is probably best, but the watered down sound field makes it easier to hide artifacts. These are my opinions only, not trying to tell people here what to like!!!

I do have a Gemini CS-I 4 channel external decoder, but haven't hooked it up because it uses balanced XLR ins and outs. The connectors alone will cost more than the unit. If I hear that this should be significantly better than the CS-II plugin, then I'll get around to trying it out.

Quad on!!!

Dan in Spokane
 
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