Spiker,

My "headphones" suggestion was to simply illustrate that there are always different ways of tackling a problem.

But to pick up on it just a bit more, I imagine that I could find some form of headphone amp unit that would allow several (or at least a few) headphones to be plugged-in at the same time - with individual volume controls. I also know that there is a wide range of headphones (there have been other threads discussing this) available - to suit mosts tastes (and maybe even hair styles.) Pretty good headphones can be had for as little as $100. While the sky's the limit you can also get i) noise cancellation-type phones, ii) "surround sound" phones, etc. The total cost is likely to be far less than for a good set of speakers and power amps. Not that I'm advocating this per se. Just saying that it's a possibility.

As far as the bass portion goes, you could always still run sub(s) - but I can see how balancing relative levels might be a bit of an issue (especially with multiple listeners using a variety of volume settings.) Why not tactile transducers under each person's seat, connected somehow to the volume control? Most headphones give reasonably good bass response - the tactile transducer would deliver something akin to the LFEs.

And as to the question of that very picky listener: I do movie nights fairly frequently and usually have two other couples over at a time. I do a ten minute demo of my theatre for anyone who has not been there before - basically a sound and vision appreciation intro / highlights. I walk them through mono, stereo, surround - progressively adding speakers / subs / equalizers etc. - with a variety of demo material. I show them composite video, S-video, component 480p (line doubled by the monitor / line doubler / progressive scan DVD), and then HD. By the time we watch the movie they've gotten over the wiz-bang capabilities of the system and they are able to focus on the movie's content, and not be distracted by the technology that's delivering it. And surely that's the real purpose - at least it is for me.

Regards.

Jeff Mackwood