Editor's note: Following is the second in a two-part series recapping last week's Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas Convention Center.
For years home theater devotees have been told the same thing about speaker setups: one center channel, two front channels, two rear channels and a subwoofer form the ideal surround sound arrangement.
Yet the recent four-day 2003 Consumer Electronics Show was rampant with evidence that the traditional "5.1" speaker layout might soon be a thing of the past.
After introducing a 6.1 surround-sound concept in 2000, the industry has added yet another speaker channel to the mix with a 7.1 design. And, insiders say, even larger arrangements such as a 10.2 format are already in the works.
All of which leads to the obvious question for most consumers: When it comes to home-theater setups, are more speakers necessarily better?
Jeff Coates, a home entertainment training manager for Kenwoood USA, contended that, to a point, adding speakers each with their own distinct audio output can increase the enjoyment of a TV show or movie.
"In most cases, more is better," Coates said. 'It's like having more colors on your palette."
A 6.1 system adds a rear center channel, while a 7.1 setup takes that idea one step further, dividing the rear center audio into two distinct channels.
"(Adding rear channels) allows the director to do fly-overs or bring sound from the back forward, and puts you more in the middle of it," Coates said.
This spring Kenwood will begin selling its first 6.1-capable home theater in box units, each with an audio/video receiver, DVD player and seven speakers, including a subwoofer.
"It's a big box, but it's all in one box," Kenwood public relations rep Brian Shaffer said. "And it works for the type of places we live in, not where J.Lo (Jennifer Lopez) lives."
Stuart Levine, divisional marketing manager for Harman Kardon, agreed that adding rear channels can enhance the home theater experience. But he was also quick to point out that most DVDs are unable to produce distinct rear channel sounds.
"The more channels you have, the more realistic you can make the sound," Levine said. "But it's not always discreet. Most of the time, those two back speakers pump out the same thing."
To counter that problem, Harman Kardon has equipped all of its audio/video receivers with a technology known as Logic 7, a way of dividing sound recorded for two or five channels into six or seven distinct channels.
"If you listen to a plane flying around the room, you actually hear it move through all your speakers," Levine said.
But, Levine added, most consumers will probably be content with tried-and-true 5.1 home theater environments, unless they are high-end audiophiles.
"For the average person, 5.1 is probably where they're going to be happy," Levine said. "Those who are really into sound and willing to pay for it will want 7.1, but if you spend $4,000 on a system and two of your speakers are dead most of the time, you'll probably ask yourself why you spent so much money."
The future of CDs?
Five years after the introduction of competing mediums DVD-audio and Super Audio CD (SACD), debate raged on at CES over which will ultimately win out and become the successor to the common compact disc.
Each comes with a set of pros and cons -- and a group of steadfast supporters.
In DVD-audio's corner: The discs can be played on compatible DVD players, most of the discs feature multichanneled sound (for surround playback) and the DVD format allows the discs to be supplemented with additional video elements.
"DVD is the format of the future," Craig Eggers, senior manager for Dolby, said. "It's new, it's sexy, it has recording capability. Everywhere you look, DVD is replacing CD. And you haven't heard music until you've heard it in multichannel."
SACD, a format conceived by Sony and Phillips, currently features far more available music titles than DVD-audio, including last year's Rolling Stones remasters and a just-announced Bob Dylan, Peter Gabriel and Police reissue series due later this year.
Most SACD discs are also multilayered, allowing consumers with standard CD players to listen to them without upgrading to an SACD player (though not in SACD quality). DVD-audio CDs generally cannot be played on standard CD players.
"SACD is for people who just want to hear music and don't want to watch it on a TV screen," Michael Smith, training manager for Sony speciality audio/video components, said. "We're trying to get people just to listen to music again."
Tunes via satellite
Unhappy with the choices on your local radio dial? Satellite radio providers XM and Sirius are steadily winning over consumers with access to 100 channels of music and talk radio apiece.
Two of the most popular booths at CES, XM and Sirius have been steadily gaining listeners since debuting in 2001 and 2002, respectively. XM already boasts more than 360,000 subscribers, while Sirius hopes to expand its network by teaming with Chrysler, Hertz and Kenwood to become available in more automobiles.
After the purchase and installation of a satellite-ready radio unit, Sirius costs $12.95 a month, with XM priced at $9.99 a month. Both companies provide access to a wide variety of music channels, along with sound from television stations such as CNN and ESPN.
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