10.2 surround?

[PPG]

Wow, what a concept. This won't be any time soon but this is an interesting read about the inventor of THX, Tom Holman's latest experiments in audio realism:


http://www.audiorevolution.com/equip/tomholman/

[alumpkin]

Good luck finding enough places in your listening room for all of those speakers! Other than that, it sounds like it would be mighty impressive setup. Unfortunately it is not very practical now because, as the article says (and I agree wholeheartedly), a 10.2 surround setup is not as easy as just adding speakers and there are no commercial source material for a 10.2 system. Nice article though.

[Woochifer]

Holman's been touting this system for about five years now, and there is a demo installation at an audio store in San Antonio. But, Holman's not the only one who's been working on developing a surround setup that goes beyond the typical 5.1 setup. Telarc, DMP, Chesky, and others have worked on alternative setups with high mounted effect speakers and overhead channels. Unlike Holman's system, some of what they proposed can actually use the existing six-channel audio formats (DVD-A and SACD), by redirecting the subwoofer and center channel tracks into the overhead or high mounted effect speakers. In addition, NHK the Japanese broadcast network is currently developing a UHDV (ultra high definition video) format, and have proposed using a 22.2 audio carrier (10 channels at ear level, 9 channels overhead, and 3 channels below).

http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=4800

On Holman's 10.2 setup, I've heard mixed things about how it actually sounds in person. (And some of the stuff that he's touted as part of the THX specs, like the mandated use of dipolar surround speakers and the re-EQ mode, are also considered dubious by a lot of people) And like alumpkin mentioned, you got practical considerations as well. For most people, a 5.1 setup is already a stretch, and going to 6.1 or "7.1" is already something I would not recommend for the majority of rooms that have the sofa pushed against the backwall. As I've stated before, I wonder if Holman has ever set foot in a typical living room.

[kexodusc]

Interesting....my new basement HT is about 24 X 20.
I'm proabably one of the few people who could actually benefit from 10.2 system.
I'm really impressed with the improvement I get using 7 channels.

Problem is, there's no way in hell my fiancee's gonna let me stuff 3 more speakers and another sub in the room.
And to be honest, I didn't really notice much improvement using 2 subs anyway.

Maybe using small bookshelf or QUALITY HTIB speakers would make a 10.2 feasible?
It's almost essential for 22.2 to work. can't imagine 22 studio 20's in a room. Not to mention the 10K or so it would cost.

I'm with Wooch on this all the way...While I noticed a surprisingly significant improvement adding 2 rear speakers, I still admit the bulk of the action is in the front 5 channels, and people shouldn't even thing about adding speakers until they get 5.1 down right.
Dialogue intensive movies don't really sound a whole lot better just because there's more speakers when 95% of the sound comes from the front 3 channels.

And in a typical living room that's say 12 X 14 or something, where are you gonna put all these speakers?

Imagine how many monoblock power amps you'd need to drive 22 channels?