Can a surround sound be achieved with a 4 channel stereo?

Question

I have a pioneer f - 28 tuner with an A-27 amplifer, pushing 125wats per chanel to two marantz sp1500 fronts and two ohm d1 speakers in the rear. The system was set up for listining to music, but when i listen to movies like O brother where art thou or even resadent evil I sware I cant tell the differance between my set up and my brothers new bose supper dupper mulit pupper 6.1 set up.(except mine will litterely shake the walls and rattle windows). Bottem line, Am i realy missing out on some thing and how much should I look to spend on comprable system? I don't want to buy and be disapointed. Thank you for your time.

Answer 1

you have to setup the receiver to no subwoofer and no center channel also you need to use phantom effect so the center channel goes through the front speakers.

Answer 2

No offense intended but... you first need to get your terms right. There is no such thing as 4-channel stereo. Stereo is 2-channel. Right and left. You may have 2 pairs of speakers hooked up to your amp and going at the same time but it is still stereo. With speakers in the wrong place probably.

Surround means that you have different soundtracks sent to the 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1 channels.

Front R and L are the main sound source. Center is dialog as dialog has to come from the screen where the talking heads are. Rears are special effects channels. And the .1 is a subwoofer which is only used for movies. Quality music CDs do not have a subwoofer track.

That you do not hear the difference between you set up and your brother's means that you still don't know what surround sounds like. Sorry for you brother but Bose is far from being quality equipment.

I suggest you go to a good stereo store in your city (no Circuit City, no Best Buy) and listen to some of what they have to offer. Even if you can't afford their stuff right now (and you might be surprised), at least you will learn about surround. If shaking the walls and rattling windows was a sign of quality, life would be easy.

I don't mean to put you down or anything. Just trying to teach you something since you asked and Home Theaters are my paycheck. I install HT from $10,000. to $500,000. but my very first personal one only cost me about $2,500. and it was pure bliss.

If you have serious question, do not hesitate to contact me by e-mail.

Answer 3

Yes, if you add two rear speakers you will get most of the surround sound effect.  Another good addition is a front center speaker for dialog.  Most of the time if you're not a real audiophile, 5 speakers like that will sound just as good as a fancier setup.