Surround sound in the living room is not science fiction any more: Multi-channel loudspeaker set-ups today are popular for the home cinema, and surround music content is starting to become available. However, most of the content out there still is just stereo. To get most out of that stereo material on a surround setup, Fraunhofer IIS introduces MP3 SX (MP3 Stereo eXtended), a new MP3 Surround flavor. MP3 SX enhances MP3 files from stereo to surround sound without changing the original stereo MP3 quality.

Key features

• The next generation of MP3 Surround encoders will contain the MP3 SX Engine. That way, MP3 Surround can be used not only to compress 5.1 material very efficiently but also to enhance stereo material to surround sound in SX quality if original 5.1 material is not available. Even regular MP3 files can be enhanced towards SX surround sound without changing the original MP3 quality.
• MP3 SX preserves the original stereo sound stage, creating additional surround envelopment.
• MP3 SX creates natural surround sound as it does not apply artificial reverberation.
• MP3 SX smoothly integrates the center channel. That way, a stable stereo sound image is preserved even off the sweet spot.
• MP3 SX files can be played back with any MP3 player in high quality stereo sound. Played back with an MP3 Surround player, listeners will enjoy 5.1-channel surround sound.
• MP3 SX files are just slightly larger than stereo MP3 files.

Technology

For more information, please visit www.mp3surround.com.