That sound is round sir

Stereo sound has been with us for more than 50 years now. It’s elicited a good number of “cool”s over the years as listeners have amazed at what simple level differences between two speakers can do. Here’s a newer version of stereo that has me a bit enthralled. It’s called Ambiophonics, pioneered by a gentleman named Ralph Glasgal and it works very well in my opinion. All you need is to take your computer speakers which are probably at the standard 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock to your listening position (actually one on a shelf two feet above your head and facing the wrong way behind a pile of books, respectively if you’re like most computer workstations I’ve seen) and move them very close together so that they are at 11:30 and 12:30 to your listening position using the clock analogy. Now just download Expatriate or Conviction and listen on your reconfigured speakers with the media player of your choice.

The songs are encoded with something called crosstalk cancellation which basically means the music from the left speaker gets canceled out before getting to your right ear and vice versa. The net effect should be that you hear sounds coming from spaces well outside of the position of the speakers. The best part is that any stereo music played through or encoded with crosstalk cancellation will work in this way.