3 channel sound


At Axpona Chicago I heard the comparison of stereo vs. 3 channel (Oscar Peterson and Nat King Cole's selections) through Mytek Sony Pass 5 channel dsd system. I was stunned with the change in focus of the image. Not 5 channel nonsense where music comes from 5 speakers (sorry Dire Straits) just 3 channel.

My question is besides VAS Audio, who offers a 3 channel preamp/processor? Only other one I know of is old H-K that the VAS is based on.

Has anyone ever heard the TriSound processor that James B. had released shortly before his death?
roundmoundofsound
Duh. I actually use Trifield on my 861 but I don't usually suggest Meridian since it is expensive and not mainstream.
Meridian is one of the best sounding pre/pro's made. You should remember them Kal! They make some of the best pre/pro's f all time!
Meridian I think is main stream. They have Pre/Pros at different price levels including the G68 I own and all have a Trifield mode
I think you can set up 3 channel using most avrs by just specifying that you do not have rear speakers in the setup. You will need to provide a digital signal to the receiver unless your avr digitizes analog signals. You can use Dolby Digital, NEO, EARS (NAD) to generate the center channel. DD lets you adjust the amount that goes to the center. With HDMI CD/Blu-Ray players, this is pretty easy. With computer music, you can just send the digital signal to the avr. At a higher end, Meridian is very good. They used to have a huge center speaker available for this. Not sure if they still do or not.

In the demo, now did they generate the center channel?
I believe it was a discrete 3 channel recording. 5.1 recordings played reminded me of days of quadrophonic sound with band instruments playing separately from the front and from the rear. The best 5.1 recordings I have heard from dsd, Sacd discs, and bluray use the rear as ambient retrieval not discrete.

The Oscar Peterson and Nat King Cole files were, I believe, originally recorded with 3 mikes. If anything played out of the rear I could not hear it. The 3 channels sounded incredibly natural yet utterly clean and focused compared to the stereo versions which sounded pretty good until the 3 channel versions played.

Yes avrs can probably play this type of format, but II have yet to hear an avr sound anything like the Mytek demo at Axpona.