Audiophiles, rejoice! Starting in March of next year, XM Satellite Radio will begin offering two stations of music in 5.1 channel surround sound, 24-hours-a-day. Unfortunately for mainstream music lovers, the 2 stations in question are Fine Tuning and XM Pops, both of which had been deleted from our receivers long ago. DSP and surround sound sound experts Neural Audio Corp. will be providing the tech behind the broadcasts, called XM HD Surround, which can be played on older units but only in 5.1 on upcoming rack gear by Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, and Yamaha (i.e. you gotta pay to play, folks). As much as we'd love to hear Doug E. Fresh's "The Show" coming at us from all angles, even this meager start bodes well for the radio industry, as we can envision a day in the not-too-distant future when we can listen to NPR in full 20.5 channel glory over at the Mansion.

 

i wonder if our TLs will get the 5.1

 

Maybe if it turns out to be a success they'll add more hardware that will support it and in a future gen of the TL we might get to hear it. And maybe they'll add better stations to the 5.1 lineup.