Bryston manual APPENDIX A - SP1.7 Surround MODES, Surround Modes

APPENDIX A - SP1.7 Surround MODES

Pressing the MODE button will illuminate the LED and let you sequentially select one of the many available decoding modes for 2 channel signals. These special modes are designed to expand your enjoyment of almost any 2 channel music source and many other 2 channel signals. You are encouraged to experiment with the options on various sources. Not all will supply something you may like, but there are so many variables that it does pay to take a few moments to listen to the options. The custom SP1.7 Surround Modes use a set of DSP algorithms to create a set of simulated signals using the original left and right 2 channel data and feeds these to the to centre and surround speakers.

Surround Modes

Hall. This Sound Field Mode emulates a medium or large concert hall. It provides a longer reverberation time than other modes and gives the effect that music is heard at a greater distance from the performers. It is ideal for orchestral classical music and light orchestral music, such as that found on many film soundtrack albums, but this mode will generally sound a bit muddy on rock or pop music.

Theatre. This Sound Field Mode simulates a room larger than a club, and it is intended to simulate what you would hear in the front rows in a medium-size theatre. The reverberation here is not overly obtrusive, since a theatre is intended for clarity of speech. This mode is suited for opera, rock, easy listening music, and any music you might hear in a theatre.

Stadium. This Sound Field Mode provides a prominent “slap echo,” emanating largely from the rear, and it gives a lively effect especially on solo instruments such as bass guitar. This mode is unsuitable for speech as the echo destroys intelligibility. The sound is “big” but slightly artificial — it is suitable for stadium rock, and other music that one would hear in a large stadium environment.

Club. This Sound Field Mode is intended to simulate being fairly close, around 10 feet away, in a small intimate club setting with a moderate amount of reverberation that does not destroy clarity. The result is a bit colored for speech due to the small room size, but it is quite suitable for jazz groups, cabaret, small-venue rock ‘n roll, and a small disco venue where dance music is played. This mode can also be used for classical chamber music and solo instrumental music of most kinds.

Church. This Sound Field Mode simulates a large, spacious acoustic space with a very long reverberation time. It is well-suited to organ music, choral music, and New Age music. It is too reverberant for most other kinds of material, but it is very spacious for material it is suited to.

Natural. This mode enhances the basic stereo reproduction by using the inherent acoustics recorded within the source material. If the source material was surround encoded or recorded in an acoustically oriented manner (such as a lot of classical music and many live recordings) this mode can provide truly spectacular effects and an enhanced sense of the space in which the music was being performed.

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