Stereophile: Three Channels, No Digital

Jim Shannon and Stirling Trayle of Quartet Marketing pose with the $4200 T+A K1 AV,which combines CD/DVD playback with analog matrix room sound processing, analog preamp duties, an FM tuner, and two channels of 100W power plus one channel of 60W.

What's the point? "We suspect many people aren't all that interested in those rear channels—especially if they don't watch effects-laden movies," said Trayle. "The K1 will appeal to the consumer whose main focus is music, but who wants the movie experience to be as good as his audio. Besides, if rear and side channels are necessary, we do offer S/PDIF outputs."

And yes, that is North By Northwest playing on the TV—an excellent example of a film that doesn't need rear channels.

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Reader Comments

Posted Sun Sep17, 2006, 3:24 PM — By Monty

Yup, these guys are talking to me. I'm an old movie buff and don't care much for 5.1 or greater. Cary Grant and Humphrey Bogart aren't blowing up much stuff or racing through the galaxy. Good idea and a fair value.

Posted Fri Sep22, 2006, 12:39 PM — By Tom Norton

Surround adds a lot more to a film than simply crash-boom special effects. It can add subtleties that greatly enhance the impact of a film, and if that's a surprise to you then you probably don't have a surround setup anyway so you haven't experienced it. You're basing your opinion on show demos (which rarely deal in subtleties) and movie theaters (where most such subtleties are lost). If you argue that you watch only classic films, however, I can agree with you. North by Northwest was recorded in mono, so of course doesn't need surround. It doesn't even need two channels!

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