Surround sound is a technique for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with additional audio channels from speakers that surround the listener (surround channels), providing sound from a 360° radius in the horizontal plane (2D) as opposed to "screen channels" (centre, left, and right) originating only from the listener's forward arc.
Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and presents a fixed or forward perspective of the sound field to the listener at this location. The technique enhances the perception of sound spatialization by exploiting sound localization; a listener's ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance. Typically this is achieved by using multiple discrete audio channels routed to an array of loudspeakers.
There are various surround sound based formats and techniques, varying in reproduction and recording methods along with the number and positioning of additional channels.
Read more about Surround Sound: Fields of Application, Types of Media and Technologies, History, Creating Surround Sound, Mapping Channels To Speakers, Bass Management, Low Frequency Effects (LFE) Channel, Surround Sound Specifications
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