Amused to death is a truely great album. I always appreciate the references to good music among these videos

I found this accidentally and I'm honestly fascinated by it as a concept. I have some crafting to do.

Carver and Hafler we're goddamn geniuses . Carver always looked for usual features in almost every product he designed. When I see one of his advertisements in a magazine where he's part of the picture look at that giant smile he has on his face. It's like he saying I know something you didn't know so here it is.

I had a sonic hologram generator in my system 35 years back. I got some really neat effects on sound staging. Tracks like doobie brothers Black Water track. Really cool. Plus many others groups and tracks. I also have several Q sound CDs and I think it is a purer way to go if you want to experience it and not having an extra electronic device in the signal path. I found the C9 hologram generator masked the sound in areas of resolution. The circuits design etc was no where the quality and resolution say for example audio research amp and preamp. So I took it out of my system. The Q sound cds didn’t seem to have the lack of resolution I had with the C9. I still have it and miss it. After seeing this, I may just reconnect it back to have fun with it for a while.

Well explained sir. You truly are a font of knowledge and I love listening. I used to read about these sound variations and reproduction techniques in the 1970s and experimented a bit myself as did my friends. Happy days.

Love the info, so cool to learn the technical aspects of how sound engineering works. Thank you Paul, God bless.

People must not forget Bob Carver with his sonic holography amps of the 80s.

DBX Soundfield 1a speakers include a phase-shifting crossover that accomplishes a similar effect without collapsing when you move. You can actually get up and move around the room and the soundstage is still enormous. But of course they are cheap by comparison and considered "gimmicky" by many. I guess that's why I own two sets of them.

Again learned a bunch. Before you explained it I thought snake oil. I don't want it, but neat to know.

I remember when David Hasselhoff created the original holographic sound (sound you can see by moving your head). He applied technology from his ground breaking KITT project to devise visual sound.

Hi Paul. You sense the direction of an origin of a sound by comparing the phases of the wave as percieved by your ears. Volume plays a much smaller role in direction finding. Try it with a cotton ball in one ear. Lets say you have a single midrange on a long cable pushing out 440Hz and you have a friend walk around with it. You'll be able to point out where he is with your eyes closed. The best effect will be heard when the frequency gives a wavelength that matches the distance between your ears, or half that I think. For low frequencies the wavelength is considerably larger that that and that's why it doesn't really matter where you put the subwoofer. The phase difference is not pronounced enough. For very high frequencies the effect will also be lost. Putting out different phases of the same signal from a pair of speakers will definitely give some weird effects. Remember that you hear both speakers with both ears. Given the interference pattern the sound wave will make in the room you'll experience different images in different spots in the room, even without reflections. Hats off to the guys who get this right. Thanks for your videos.

If i am not mistaken the new Polk Audio Legend L800 do that effect 🔊🎶🎼.

I have and use a C9. That's exactly correct. Some music sounds great with the hologram on, other music, it doesn't. Even track to track. Never can tell until you try but it's only a PB away, (actually two).

Isn't this the same concept that is present with the Polk SDA Legend series speakers?

You can solve the inter-aural cross-talk by using 2 rooms for your stereo, and make a cutout on the wall between them at the listening position in the shape of you sitting in your chair (profile). I admit you're kinda stuck in one position, but it's for the sound...

Meanwhile people with headphones are trying to add crossfeed, to recreate the effect people with speakers are trying to eliminate...

I'm surprised nobody has introduced an "outboard" Sonic-Holography add-on unit. One would think it would sell well and be a $$ for Carver. I know one person who has the Carver Pre-amp with SH..He likes it...but it took him a while to "find" the proper delay setting for his listening room.

Thanks for explaining how Q sound works

Maybe get some good Open Baffle speakers to get a good sound stage. If you have the space and can put up with them...

Gimmick? No its not a Gimmick. That sounds directed to Bob it seems. I have a C-9 and it can add incredible life to some dead sounding material even if your not in the sweet spot so to say. Bob got the design down perfect. Other attempts I have auditioned were not the same at all. Once you use one you won't ever stop for most people that experience it. The C-9 also has more options than the built in circuits on his receivers and integrated amps.

Given the ever increasing market for bluetooth speakers, have you ever considered a BT version of your Acoustic Spatial Generator?

Sorry, But here We go again with Microphone Placement during the Recording Process. Since there is NO Universal Method of Placing "mics"; Plus the Vast number of Different Microphones used. It will Always be "hit or miss" with a device such as Carver's . But hey, Enjoy the Ones, which Work !

If a slight movement of our heads makes dramatic changes to the stereo image, I say, "nope."

I just realised how to avoid the limitation of not be able to move even a step left/righ. Its this: just use that Effect you told on a bigger System, like on a Openair sized Pa, and voila, you have that effct, while being able to move. Well mikael Jackson could bought it for him and his companions... Not usable for the whole audience, but it would be possible

I once owned a Dynaco Dynaquad device which made some kind of matrix 4-channel effect from a stereo source. Didn't like it much.

Wow, there's nothing Paul McGowan doesn't know. 30 years ago when I bought a pair of Mission Argonauts, the dealer threw in, as a freebie, a Carver C9 that someone had traded in. I don't think Carver was officially sold in Oz. I tried it out with a few artists like Kate Bush, Pink Floyd and New Order. It sounded terrible. I took it out of the system and forgot about it but it's still floating around in a cupboard somewhere. To give Carver credit though, I wrote to the USA and told them I'd acquired a C9 and they posted me a copy of the manual. Meanwhile, the Argonauts are still going strong.

I would happily buy it for $1 how can I contact you?

Great explanation! It does sound a bit like a nightmare though, as you have to keep absolutely still, otherwise, since it's all based on physics (distance/phase/timing), it won't work as intended. If I want this kind of effect I will put the headphones on and forget about reflections and time alignment etc. Good for experimenting but, for real listening conditions, no thanks!

I know I mention him all the time, but Steve Hillages music in a good soundstage is completely holographic physically. Mentally, it’s way beyond holographs for me. Maybe I do too much LSD but god damn he is so good.

If eliminating cross talk can improve the image and soundstage, why doesn't open back headphones have a big giant soundstage all around your head?

Millions of TVs and sound bars in the last couple of decades or so have done similar things incl. this sort of sound stage manipulating audio processing through DSP: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Retrieval_System

The most advanced holograms are quantum they stop pollution, when placed on speakers.

Can we say sonic holography is like 3D sound?

Two ears, infinite possibilities!

So, if I understand this correctly, you take away the ear's natural way of hearing/locating a sound and this makes things better?!

The lineage: Headphones, Carver Sonic Holography, Polk SDA, Bacch-SP and Ambiophonics. You should EXPERIENCE all of those to actually have a valid opinion and it's somewhat insulting to all the inventors of the aforementioned technologies to even use the word "gimmick".

I think the technology has more potential for musical instruments than in reproduction as Roger Waters so ably demonstrated.

I've owned a carver hologram generator for decades. It can be very useful, stunning even, on some old or poorly-engineered material. The effect can be profound on new Dolby,, atmos, dbx etc. recordings. Moreover with proper setup you don't need to stay pinned in a "sweet spot" as the images in the soundstage seem to lock in place. My 2 cents.

Paul you don’t know what you are talking about.