Hia.
I've been downloading and listening to the files available on this site for a while now, and thought it was time for me to give something back!
I have two ambisonic reproduction systems at home. One in the lounge, and another in my car! In the lounge I have a Minim AD7 purchased new in June 1990 for £149.95 (inc Vat). In the car meanwhile, I have been running a Troy TA110P Ambisonic Processor since Feburary 1995.
I'm sorry to say that I don't have any surround sound files to upload, but I am able to contribute in other ways. Time to get the camera and scanner out because I've got all the original literature for these two items, and I thought you'd like to see it. There's very little info available on the Internet regarding the Troy Processor, and it might interest you to know that I also have the accompanying Troy TA1000 four channel power amplifier (still new in sealed box), TA2000 Dual Amplifier Adaptor (also new in unopened sealed box), and TA25B Bass enhancer Network. So keep a watch on my pages and files here as I add some pdfs and photos.
In the meantime, here's a quick rundown on my home and car systems:
Home - Various analogue and digital sources feeding a NAD Monitor series 1300 pre-amp. The Minim AD7 outputs are fed to two NAD Monitor Series 2100 Power Amps. Speakers are three pairs of B&W DM2Mk2's, two stacked pairs at the front and the third pair at the rear. Imaging is excellent, only let down by the small oddly shaped room. I'm not really into computer audio I'm afraid, but I listen to the tracks I've downloaded from here on the 'B-Format music player' through a Creative Audigy soundcard, the digital output of which is fed to my Hi-Fi through a Behringer DSP-8024 which I use as a D/A convertor.
Car (Rover 600) - Sony 5000 head unit (which has 6 inputs - radio/cassette/cd changer/aux1/aux2 and USB inputs - yes, you read that right, a USB input!) feeding the Troy processor. Amplifier is a Philips 4 channel 600 watt beast feeding Kenwood component speakers front and rear.
In car imaging is, to be honest, quite weird. The best seat in the house is the centre back seat! That said, switching the unit to bypass is accompanied by a total colapse of the soundstage, so I tend to leave it switched in. You get used to the imaging after a while, honest!
My musical taste is very varied, everything from goth to classical, and I have built up a very eclectic mix of records, CD's, cassettes, reel to reel tapes and DAT's over the years. To be honest, I just love listening to music, it matters not what genre it is. One thing however does matter to me - sound quality. There's no excuse for a shodily recorded, mixed, or mastered album, but unfortunately, they are all too common.
When not listening to UHJ encoded material, I mostly leave both processors on stereo enhance mode. I find it works very well, especially on the Minim AD7. One enormous benifit of the Minim is that it will decode (quite acurately to my ears!) any analogue film surround sound format you throw at it. Who needs Dolby stereo (or whatever flavour is in vogue at the moment?). I don't!
That's about it for now. I'll leave you with a pdf of the Troy brochure and price list, the only copy available on the internet as far as I am aware.
Best wishes to all, and thanks for a great website.
Ali.