Is Brian Eno correct?

Musician, Brian Eno recommends the addition of a third loudspeaker in a person's home stereo system. Why? Is it a mystery as Eno suggests or does Paul know the answer?

[bunn.erabbit]

What a silly question. Brian Eno is always correct!

[ctbarker]

I installed car stereos for myself and friends in high school back in the 70's. I was an audiophile even then and read about the Hafler circuit. I installed two stereo speakers in the doors of my Beetle Bug and built a ledge for the rear space behind the rear seats and had one speaker (Jensen) hooked up to the Left and Right Plus wires for the Hafler effect. It sounded great. I was the envy of all my friends. Paul didn't mention this but the Hafler circuit was the forerunner for what eventually became Dolby Pro Logic and all the variations. What is old is new again!

[Nephilim-]

Ambient 4 : on land is an absolutely incredible album. If Brian Eno told me to listen to it in a hot air ballon I’d do it. 🤣

[duncanrosie]

I set this up on my hifi and car stereo in the early 80’s (thanks to Brian Eno) and I recall it worked really well with Vangelis, Eno (of course), Fripp, Tangerine Dream etc. Great memories!

[Joshualbm]

I've been experimenting a bit with this. I think my best results are pretty interesting. There's an awful lot of sound that comes from this phantom channel arrangement. Since the key is to add ambience, using a speaker that is very neutral is key. Small 2-way speakers give themselves away and so do larger ones. But a small open baffle full-range driver or 2 produces the perfect level of sonics without directivity. It's eerie and kind of magical.

[Bassotronics]

I’ve figured this out 20 years ago. Doing this will create a “cheap man’s” surround sound.
But beware, if you are playing crappy low bitrate mp3 tracks, those lossy artifacts will be more present using this technique.

[ScoBionicle]

I accidently discovered this as a teenager. In fact, that's what I thought surround sound was. A few years after, I learned how traditional 5.1 works, but part of me prefers the Hafler Circuit.

Depending on how a movie is mixed in traditional surround, there's not a lot of information sent to the surround channels. I know it's usually meant for ambience, but sometimes it feels like I can just stick to Stereo sound without missing much from the surround speakers.

The Hafler Circuit is a different experience entirely, and while it's not for everyone, I personally love it. Nowadays, I have a Denon receiver that as this function, specifically "Matrix" mode.

[rickc]

Every time someone says "Brian Eno, " my brain automatically plays 1/1.

[buzzbabyjesus]

I did this, per Eno's suggestion, in the '70's and it's pretty cool. We called it "the stereo difference".

[BartholomewSmutz]

Well I'm glad I watched this video I Was preparing to go into the door to door encyclopedia sales business.

[silentgd]

I bought Ambient IV when it came out, saw the liner notes and immediately set my stereo up as illustrated..loved the sound...have kept it this way ever since.

[geoffs]

I had a Hafler speaker set up on my stereo 40 years ago. Worked very well.

[RadioHamGuy]

Thanks for bringing this up, I remember doing this as a teen with my stereo back in the early 80's and it sounded pretty cool at the time, like a surround type of sound! It seemed amazing at the time.

[samkuzel]

I love your tangent about encyclopedias

[EPA]

I have used this three speaker system for years. When I first used it, I was listening to the old Fleetwood Mac song, "I loved another woman". Peter Green's guitar solo in that song became almost other-worldy, the surround sound effect was that good. It became no longer an option for me, but a necessity for my stereo system.

[crunchyfrog]

I'd completely forgotten about this. I can't wait to try it out.

[ajn]

Using a pair of speakers has its advantages. (The right rear getting its positive signal from the right channel of the amp and vice versa). The negative terminals of the speakers can be connected either with a single wire running between the speakers, or twisting together the negatives behind the amp and leaving them connected to nothing. The next helpful thing to do is try attenuate in the rears with a single wire wound 10 or 20 watt resistor. Pick up a couple anywhere from, say 1 to 8 ohms. They are not expensive. Just insert one into the circuit. When it’s hard to tell if the surrounds are on unless you turn them off, you’re probably in the ballpark. Usually without some attenuation the rears tend to be too loud and muck everything up. The important thing is that your amp have a common ground. The vast majority of consumer stereo amplifiers do. This eliminates mono blocks just for openers.

A few friends of mine and I when we were at the CCM, Mills College back in 1983/84 did this. It was so interesting. We had 2 clock synched C64s, one on the right, one on the left, 2 synths, and 2 guitars. We had so much fun in the mix panning things left or right and that 3rd speaker in the back helped to creat an amazing live audio space.

[JohnAudioTech]

I discovered this by accident 40 years ago when I was connecting the stereo cartridge of my record player to a mono amplifier. I had accidentally reversed the wires on one channel. The music sounded strange with some vocals removed. I later learned about the David Hafler circuit. It works great for movies.

[bigdaddystoys]

I use an EAD Theater Master for my stereo preamp. It has a digital four channel Hafler Effect setting. I have it set with 2 channel mains straight thru CD direct, and the Hafler effect on the rears. It sounds like nothing else I have ever heard. Truly amazing.