History and current state of the war between the two main approaches to surround sound: discrete speaker feeds versus hierarchical matrix

40th AES Conference - Tokyo, 8-10 October 2010

So, what is the real difference between the two systems?

•In a Hierarchical Matrix system, the virtual microphones are always COINCIDENT, albeit some types of “Logic” decoders can add delays, which emulates virtual microphones more far from the source

•In a Discrete system, the microphones can be either real or virtual, and they can be SPACED providing some potential perceptual advantages (and consequent risks)