I can understand and appreciate the first advancement, from mono to stereo. The 4.1/5.1 was a nice frill for gaming with surround sound (and theoretically home theaters though it seems to be rarely exploited AFAICT).

Then WTF, the convenience of bluetooth portable speakers means we no longer need stereo? It’s somewhat understandable that you’re not going to get proper stereo from a speaker (equalateral triangle and all) when on foot or cycling, but portable BT speakers have broader uses, like diy work outside of the living room, picnics, etc. Seems like a joke that some apparently have two speakers 10mm apart, which means the thing needs to be 10mm from your head to get proper stereo. I call it “pseudo stereo”.

Today I saw some portable BT speakers that can be paired with other speakers of the same model to give left and right. So you can buy just one and have mono, or buy two for stereo using the pairing mode.

I was tempted, but I’m annoyed that it’s proprietary – or so it seems. I have not heard of a standard by which BT speakers of different brands can pair and negotiate who is left and who is right. Plz correct me if I’m wrong. I passed on the deal because I will not be suckered into proprietary tech that features vendor lock-in.

In principle, this could be fixed at the source. If a phone were to have two bluetooth chips, it could then pair to any arbitrary two speakers and assign one left and the other right. As well, a dedicated stereo bluetooth transmitter could pair to two speakers and do the same. But has that been done?