1st Post Intro & Ramblings

I was really thinking what happens if you play a mono CD, or a record I guess, through the surround system. Mono as in, let’s say, 1951 recording. Real mono from the start, not anything downmixed or processed in some similar way.

I have never had an opportunity to hear that, but I am interested if anyone has paid attention to it. If I had to guess, if all chanells are playing the same, the sound should be right in the middle of the room. In some way, right in the spot where a listener would be ideally sitting. That is just my guess, not my claim.

Center can create an image with either of the left or right speakers that lies between the two. That should be obvious.

a mono recording cannot recreate an image. Center cannot create an image with any other speaker, time alignment and yada yada ya..... back to basics and equilateral triangle 

Ok I’m done with this thread. Thanks gents, have a good night 

kreapin OP40 posts11-03-2020 11:54pma mono recording cannot recreate an image. Center cannot create an image with any other speaker, time alignment and yada yada ya..... back to basics and equilateral triangle

You really don’t know how we perceive sound do you? I am a bit shocked given your stated experience. Localization happens from relative sound levels and timing. Given traditional studio recording techniques, most of the placement of sounds in a stereo playback is level based, not timing. Timing can be captured through microphone techniques, but that is actually not very common. In a purely analog processing workflow, it is almost impossible to impart timing based location information into stereo playback given that each instrument or group is recorded separately and then mixed.

The only reason things come into the center in a stereo image is because essentially the same thing is coming out of both speakers at the same time tricking the ear into hearing the same thing in both ears at the same time which tell you "center". Most of the movement from left to right is level based forcing your brain to work against the timing information that says otherwise.

Digital processing has brought a significant potential to stereo mixing where some level of timing information can be attempted to be embedded that did not exist in the recording, but that is more difficult than it sounds as the sound still has to come from both speakers, confusing the brain, causing cancellations, etc. The research is on how to use that cancellation as an advantage not a disadvantage.

So ... your comment about not being able to use the center channel in combination with the left or right channel to place a sound somewhere between the center channel and the other two speakers illustrates a lack of understanding of how we perceive location and how location is encoded on most recordings.  Everything that goes to every speaker is unto itself mono. Stereo, quadraphonic, triphonic, comes from the implementation of multiple sources, and it does not have to be two.