[EFM] OT: Thrift opportunities

[WeAreAs1 at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/22/00 12:53:22 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
efm3 at mediaone.net writes:

<< Did you know that every A/V receiver made these
 days does surround sound with bbds? Sounds like
 crap! I can't listen to them very long. But what the
 hey, if your going to listen to CDs and MP3s what
 would it matter anyway? >>

I would beg to differ, Tom.  Some of the manufacturers use BBD's to do a 
cheap surround effect, but many of them are using much more sophisticated LSI 
chips that do surround decoding using methods licensed from both Dolby 
Systems abd from Barcus-Berry (BBE).  You can download data sheets on many of 
these chips from the Mitsubishi Semiconductors website (and from a few 
others, to, I think).

There are even a few of these chips that look like they actually might be 
useful as part of a synth module!  (for stereo synthesis and 3-D effects)  
Getting our hands on the parts might be difficult, though - unless we pool 
our cash and order 10,000 of them...

Michael Bacich