New Audio Spacial Array IC

jimkeith

Joined Oct 26, 2011
540
Got the same notification from National yesterday, but didn't think it interested me at the time--thanks for flagging this one.

This came to mind: I purchased this Panasonic boom box for my daughter some 24 years ago--it is still kicking around, so I took a photo. It has an "Ambience" sound feature that can be turned on and off--when we picked it out, it sounded substantially better than all others on the display shelf.

Could this be an analog implementation of "Spacial" audio?
If so, how does it work?
 

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SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
Try viewing their video on how it works:
http://www.national.com/en/videos/spatial_audio_technology_overview.html
It's pretty interesting.

Seems to me that it used to be called "width" control.
Rod Elliot of Elliot Sound Products posted a couple of stereo width controller circuits on his website:
http://sound.westhost.com/project21.htm

It also gives an explanation of how it works. So, you might be better off to view Rod Elliot's page first, and then view National's video to see what the hype is.
 
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SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
@SgtWookie, You are describing channel separation--I think it is more than that...
Actually, I think that this introduction is partially due to the expiration of the patent on the Hughes SRS (Sound Retrieval System), now SRS Labs.

http://www.srslabs.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Retrieval_System

I had forgotten about SRS; it took a bit of memory jogging. I was working at Hughes when it first came out.

TI/National's IC seems to be somewhat of an extension of SRS, in that you can interface multiple IC's across multiple speakers.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
For many years, only phase change was used to enhance stereo separation. Now Texas Instruments (formerly National Semi) adds time delay and level control.
EDIT: Windows Media Player has SRS.
 
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