Re: The Dreaming Plug -- a variant is the Eno ambient speaker

[endwar@phys.psu.edu (Andrew Russ)]

The Dreaming plug has the advantage of working through headphones, which 
may help focus your attention on decoding those difficult passages.  

You can do the same thing by taking one speaker and connecting it 
to the positive terminals of the left and right channels, while 
disconnecting the regular speaker connections.  

This speaker amplifies the _difference_ between the two channels, so 
what is the same (e.g. bass sounds, most of the music) should not 
be transmitted.  Whereas apparently most of Kate's secret messages 
are in one channel or the other, so they do get transmitted.  

Unfortunately, i haven't had the chance to really sit down and 
decifer hidden messages this way yet.  

Incidentally, Brian Eno, on the back cover of Ambient 4 (On Land) 
recommends this as a stereo expander (also known as "poor man's 
surround sound), where you leave the two speakers connected, and 
add a third that goes to the positive terminals of the two channels.  
Ideally your regular speakers go in front of you on the left and right, 
while the third speaker goes behind you, more or less in the center. 
This setup supposedly helps overcomes limitations of room acoustics. 
I have used it for some time and the result is usually slightly better, 
though not spectacular, sound improvement, at least in the one room 
i've tried it in.  

andrew