Multi channel music for marriage??

Question

OK, I know this sounds quite unusual or even weird, but please bear with me!

I delved into the surround sound world just recently, and before departing permanently from the U.S. to Europe, I bought some hardware, as the prices are far better here.

One of the pieces I bought is Oppo’s DV-980H multi region & dual voltage DVD player that is also capable of playing SACD and DVD-A titles. (In fact I became aware of these formats when I first discovered Oppo’s player and after I found out what these formats are in AVS. I did not even know before there exists such thing like multi channel music!)

Anyway, at first I thought that I may or may not buy some multi channel music titles. Today, all of a sudden it has come to my mind that playing these formats in my upcoming wedding may have a great (even massive; I don’t know-- I have even never ever heard these formats) impact on the guests that when they leave the wedding, they may say “hey, the music was so d**n good. Even the very same songs I listen everyday have never sounded such good before”.

Or may be, considering the fact that the wedding will take place in a big wedding hall or outside or due to some other facts which I cannot think of right now or that I don’t know (where you need to enlighten me), it would not have any positive effect, or even if it will add some effect, such effect will be trivial, or I don’t know, even negative.

Please excuse me if I sound ridiculous or something, but this is something of utmost important for me and since I will be leaving the U.S. very soon, I must do some research and pull the trigger for SACD titles as soon as possible, as I don’t have enough time left and as far as I know such titles are almost only found in the U.S..

Many thanks in advance for your time and contribution.

PS. I am assuming that there would be an A/V receiver capable of playing these formats.

Answer 1

Just hire a good DJ and he or she will take care of the rest.  Work out in advance what music you wold like to hear and they will acomondate and even play some of your own if they do not have it.

The whole surround multichannel thing will not work well in a large room and you would end up spending all you time at the wedding worrying about it.  You new bride would not be happy.

Answer 2

One thing that DVDAudio and SACD have is higher fidelity because they use higher sampling rates than CDs. They have higher dynamic range and sound superior on high end equipment in a good quiet listening room.

Unfortunately the gear that DJs usually own are good at pumping out lots of bass and at high volumes with not too much clarity. Most these days use MP3s because they are easier and cheaper also. It's pretty easy when you use a laptop instead of a CD juke box.

They will also only have stereo amps. The amps that drive their speakers are usually not audiophile grade and just put out a lot of watts for their PA system to gobble up. You wouldn't be able to get the 5.1 channels required set up cheaply.

You'll have lots of background noise there too so any subtle details that the high definition formats exude would be lost if they could even be heard.

One thing you could do would be to ask the DJ to use high sample rate MP3s. They do have some MP3s that are lossless, like FLAC. That would give you the high fidelity of SACD if the source recording was analog or SACD to begin with. Although it would be just 2-channel.

Answer 3

It is very unlikely that with all the noise, random sitting arrangements, and random wedding environment any guests appreciate multi-channel audio. It is an interesting thought, but I would not waste any further time on it.

(It is even hard to appreciate stereo if you are not sitting smack in the middle of the room, so imagine the challenges to appreciate multi-channel audio)