Audio

Virtual-reality surround sound — also known as 3D audio, binaural, 5.1 or whatever you want to call it — never caught on for music. Surround sound that goes hand-in-hand with video has taken off, and now nearly all new movies, concerts, games and TV shows have multichannel audio. But new music on LP, CD, SACD, download or streaming is still almost always stereo.

In the early 1970s, quadraphonic (or four-channel) audio was massively promoted as the next big thing, and quad was available on LP and numerous tape formats. Most of the major record labels were on board and released a decent number of quad titles through the decade, but the format fizzled. Four speakers were two too many for most folks.

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A binaural recording “dummy” head, with microphones in its ears.


Steve Guttenberg/CNET

Audio-only surround remained more or less dormant until the early 2000s. When super-sounding SACD and DVD-Audio were introduced, you’d think audiophiles would have been dancing in the streets. Both formats were a huge improvement over CD sound quality, and both offered high-resolution stereo and multichannel audio. SACD is still lingering as a niche format, but just barely. DVD-A sunk without a trace. Again, audio-only surround was a non-starter.

We’ve seen sporadic dalliances with audio-only surround music on Blu-ray in recent years. Most notably Steven Wilson embraced surround in a big way with Blu-ray Audio discs such as “Grace For Drowning,” “Raven That Refused To Sing,” “Hand. Cannot. Erase,” and “4 1/2.” Other artists may have remixed older recording in VR formats, but I don’t know of any that has committed to recording all of their new music in a surround format.

Some VR recordings rely on variations of binaural audio, a recording technique that uses microphones mounted in the “ears” of a human-sized “dummy head.” At their best binaural recordings played over headphones can sound like you’re in the room with the band. That’s all good, but binaural isn’t new tech: Lou Reed released a couple of binaural albums in the late 1970s. Few artists followed his lead.

So what’s out there today? Dolby Atmos and DTS:X 3D surround are both “object-based,” promising “moving audio” and sound that “transports you into the story.” But my Atmos experiences at Dolby Labs in New York City and in the CNET listening room haven’t (yet) yielded a great advance over standard 5.1- or 7.1-channel surround. As for DTS:X, I’m still waiting to receive a selection of Blu-rays and receivers that can play it. It might be more effective than Atmos, we’ll see.

DTS’ Headphone:X promises to simulate “the 3D environment of the audio’s original mixing stage” on standard headphones. But it never delivered on the demos I heard.

Way back in 2010, curiously enough, I heard truly convincing surround sound over headphones with Smyth Research’s Realiser A8 processor. The complete Realiser system, including the headphones and amplifier, retailed for $3,360. When I heard the Realiser A8 for the first time, I whipped the headphones off to confirm the sound wasn’t coming out of the surround speakers in the room. No, the surround was coming from the headphones! The Realiser A8’s spatial localization was 100 percent convincing — too bad Smyth no longer makes it. A new Realiser A16 is in the works and I hope to get one in for review.

No doubt some tech genius will eventually dream up a way to convert stereo recordings into full-blown immersive audio, and in the meantime I regularly get press releases ballyhooing “3D Audio” gizmos. But most of these ear-itching efforts are rather lame. Will the buzz surrounding 3D audio ever amount to anything real? Probably not if you have to pay extra for it. Let’s check back in 2017 and see where any of this leads.

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Audio

The convenience of wireless headphones for an active world is growing too popular for Audio-Technica to resist any longer, and today the company announced a new line of wireless earbuds and headphones — five models to be exact, tuned to support an array of listening environments and style preferences.

The $180 ATH-ANC40BT active noise-cancelling earbuds are first up on the list, although it’s a bit of a stretch to call them totally “wireless,” since they still have a wire connecting the left and right buds. You can use it to drape the set around your neck, though, and it’s a necessary accessory to accommodate the QuietPoint control module that you’ll need to filter out ambient noise.

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Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATh-ANC40BT wireless earbuds


Audio-Technica

The wireless operation is powered by an internal rechargeable battery that can last for up to eight hours of playing time, and the entire module is detachable if you just want to use the 3.5mm stereo plug in a hardwired connection. Finally, the earbuds work with the aptX wireless codec that promises “CD-like quality” over a Bluetooth connection.

If you’re a fan of the AT brand and are shopping for a pair of earbuds for active sports, the SonicSport ATH-Sport4 in-ears might be your next big purchase. They’re certainly not a budget pair at $130, but the ATH-Sport4s boast an extra-rugged design that qualifies for an IPX5 rating — that means they’re protected from dust, sweat and water.

The package includes both silicone and ridged ear tips in a range of sizes so you can customize the fit of the shape of your ears, while the memory cable loops around the back of your ears to keep them in place while you work out.

Heads up to music listeners that can’t get enough bass between their ears: the $80 ATH-CKS55XBT in-ears and the $250 ATH-WS99BT over-ears are designed with your low-end appetite in mind. Despite their absurdly hard-to-remember names, these two appear to be worth your consideration for the simple fact that they both get an additional bass kick via an amplifier built into their respective housings.

They’re also the only two models in the new lineup to receive the company’s new Double Air Chamber system that the company claims will “focus the natural airflow produced by the drive movement to expand bass output.”

The SonicFuel ATH-S700BT looks like the best deal of the bunch, priced at $120 for a pair of Bluetooth cans with 40mm drivers and an internal amplifier to make up for the audio quality losses that inevitably happens over Bluetooth.

All five new Audio-Technica wireless models are available to purchase now — and check back with CNET soon for reviews of the entire spread.

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