In the 1960s, stereo sound revolutionized the music industry. But it turns out, a pioneering engineer named Alan Blumlein had actually invented stereo a full three decades earlier. Due to tragic events in World War II, his innovations were forgotten for decades. In this episode, we worked with OnePlus to tell the story of how audio has evolved from mono, to stereo, to quadraphonic, to surround sound and beyond. Today, we even have immersive, three-dimensional systems that can simulate 128 speakers using just two. Featuring Alan Blumlein’s son Simon Blumlein, and music producer Robin Reumers from the Abbey Road Institute.

Watch our video shorts on Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Follow us on Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook.

Sign up for Twenty Thousand Hertz+ to support the show & get our entire catalog ad-free.

If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at mystery.20k.org

Improve your personal sound world at oneplus.com.

Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/thespatialrace

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices