DTS Audio

#1 · February 1, 2025, 5:11 pm

Listening to some music recently, I wondered why we don't get the "stage experience" from our audio systems. Like 5.1 (or better) surround sound in most modern movies.

After a search, I found that some artists/producers have done this, especially in the early 2000's, releasing albums in SACD and DTS format. One example is George Strait's "One Step at a Time" in DTS Surround Sound, from 2007.

Next question is what can play this format without reducing it to 2-channel stereo...

If you get a 6-channel WAV from a CD like the above, it can be encoded in a compressed form (ogg) for audio collections, like this:

ffmpeg -i '01.wav' -vn -q:a 4 -ac 6 '01.ogg'

Another format that supports 5.1 audio is FLAC, but the file sizes are much bigger.