"Free"-ish quad sound

[NomoneyNohoney]

I'm going to assume you have a stereo music player of some sort, yes? So, it has two terminals on the back marked + and -, from where wires go to the each of the two speakers, OK? Nothing else, just those two speakers. Now, do you by any chance have one or two other unused speakers? A bit of wire you can use for this experiment? Single core wire like bell-wire is all you need.

There's a thing called Hafler surround sound, or pseudo stereo, which can use those old speakers to good effect. All you need to do is wire up those old speakers to the stereo's speaker terminals or plugs in a certain way, and you can get easy, free surround sound. No additional amplifier needed! Best of all, if it is just clutter that you can't be bothered with, or to coin a phrase is "Much Ado About Nothing", undo your twisted wires and shove those extra speakers back in the loft or wherever they came from.

So what's it all about? I'm no audiophile, but my understanding is that it's all to do with in-phase and out-of-phase sound signals. Most stereo sound sources carry these out-of-phase signals, which your two in-phase speakers don't hear. If you join your two spare speakers negative wires together and then connect each of your spare pair of speakers +ve leads to the radio or stereo's left and right channel +ve lead, then you're all set. Put those two speakers opposite your normal stereo speakers, so you've effectively got something like a square with speakers at each corner, and play a record or CD that you're most familiar with, and see how it sounds now.

I find that it works best with live recordings but most music has hidden stuff that this brings out, or 'spacey' stuff like Pink Floyd sometimes has sounds that are unexpectedly loud. It's a cheap way of getting much more immersing sound, for just the cost of a bit of wire and a couple of old speakers.

If you are having a problem visualising what I'm describing, look here https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/ ... ot.654041/ for a wiring diagram - they also show using just a single add-on speaker which I've not tried. Just for experimenting initially, twisted wires can be used, tart it up with plugs and sockets later, if you decide you like this and want to make it permanent.

I don't know much more about the technicalities than what I've said above, so if you want more info, Google "Hafler stereo." Some recordings are electrifying with the additional sounds you can hear - I remember now that, wherever I first read this, the author played Richard Strauss's "Also sprach Zarathustra" as his first test piece of music, and said that the hairs stood up on the back of his neck!
Have fun - do report back.

[servodude]

and said that the hairs stood up on the back of his neck!

One of the advantages of having really good audio phase detection as a human is that we can tell where the predators are coming from; so messing around with it on something you know well can hit you at a really base level

The Hafler thing is fun - I think i first heard about it in a Brian Eno article (or Fripp ... one of those guys)

- sd

[Gerry557]

Just make sure that you keep the resistances of the speakers within limits for the amp.

Not sure I'd want to mess with expensive speakers but something old from the loft maybe.

You will be talking room nodes next.