Surround CDs gaining receptive audience

By Paul Vercammen
CNN Correspondent

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- For some of today's audiophiles, plain old stereo sound might as well be coming from an ancient Victrola.

DTS 5.1 Surround Sound is part of the new sonic wave, barraging listeners with music from all directions.

"Stereo is today the age that mono was when stereo started to replace it 30 years ago," said David DelGrosso, marketing director for DTS. "It's time for another wave of technology, and 5.1 Surround Sound is that wave."

DTS -- short for Digital Theater Systems -- first roared in movie theaters with "Jurassic Park" in 1993 and is now in more than 18,000 theaters worldwide. Household units have increased from around 10,000 in 1997 to more than a million by the end of last year.

David DelGrosso says the new technology will revolutionize the music industry WAV Sound   AUDIO Listen to audio samples of the Gluey Brothers "Walk Belly Cologne" 208K WAV sound "Penny and the Young Buck" 416K WAV sound "Joe Bonner" 352K WAV sound

Now it's increasingly being used with CDs, with six tracks of sound pouring out of five speakers and a subwoofer and surrounding the listener. Stereo, of course, only has two speakers.

Surround Sound records in the 5.1 invasion include remixes by Sting, the Eagles, Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney, Santana and Toy Matinee, along with lesser-known acts like The Gluey Brothers.

Gluey Brothers band member Logan Richards, aka King Hummus, figures his New Mexico band is a fine fit for 5.1.

"Our brand of story-telling, where there are a lot of characters that come into the fold a la Charles Dickens, lends itself to 5.1," he said.

Surround Sound CDs cost about $20, and play on surround systems -- disc or DVD players equipped with a DTS decoder.

"When you've sat in front of two speakers and listened to something in stereo and then listened to the same recording mixed in 5.1, you go, 'These will eventually go away,'" Toy Matinee member Patrick Leonard said.

"Eventually people will want to hear this because it's so much more satisfying."

DTS
The Gluey Brothers
Mi Casa Studio

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