Virtual 3D sound uses only two speakers or a pair of headphones for the results it previously required 5 or 6 speakers to achieve.
This technology was initially developed to add sound excitement to computer speakers for use with action games. Upon such impressive results, the concept was then applied to home theater and developed into what it has become today. The notion that home theater systems requiring 6 speakers may soon be obsolete is suddenly being widely contemplated. This phase might turn out to have just been a brief and bulky stage the industry had to go through on the way to a sleeker virtual 3D sound.
How on earth do two speakers do all that?
Traditional surround sound decoders produce five audio streams that have been pre-mixed in a recording studio to create a sound field that surrounds the listener using 5 speakers. With virtual 3D sound the five streams designed for five physical speakers are passed through a process that projects 5 "virtual speakers" into space.
This technology makes use of the recent developments in the understanding of the psycho-acoustic information involved in human hearing to simulate realistic three dimensional perception of sound. To put it simply, after studying how the human ear perceives that a sound is coming from a certain direction, engineers have learned how to duplicate it using just two speakers.
Technical Description
The MSB rev 1 Virtual 3D board uses the Medianix MED 250 18 TruSurround (by SRS) Digital Processor. This Dolby approved 24 Bit processor decodes stereo audio and creates a 360 degree effect. The technology, developed by SRS Labs, utilizes head related transfer functions to create an effective sweet spot including up to 75% of the area between the speakers.
The new MSB Link DAC has a Virtual Surround Sound option!
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