curegeorg:

I think if you were to take that "live" music system and plop in into your living room (if it were big enough of course), you would probably find it rather bad to listen to. These systems are made for maximum sound pressure levels and maximum reliability - "fine sound quality" is a secondary consideration. Of course they try to get the best sound possible in a live venue, but the big horn systems make the unavoidable tradeoff of finesse verses reliability.

You can just imagine if a speaker cluster at a live concert failed from too much SPLs - no sound, no concert, no moolah...

While the systems in a commercial movie theater don't have quite as hard of a time of it SPL-wise as a concert venue, they nevertheless are made for maximum SPLs and reliability. Again, there are unavoidable tradeoffs in the designs of the horn speakers that can produce these high SPLs and have the necessary ruggedness. Things such as fine silk dome tweeters that have flat response beyond 20kHz are certainly not what is found in a speaker used in a movie theater!

(I have worked in the past for the two major loudspeaker manufacturers who produce speakers for both live and movie theater use - JBL and Altec Lansing).

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited June 04, 2004).]

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so i am confused as to what you guys desire to do with your home theatres then? excluding wayne, because his intentions are clear to me and i too try to reproduce sound as accurately as possible (perhaps not with the affinity that he has for thx though).

PARTICULARLY in regards to music, not movies. movie sound is easy, you want it to sound as close to possible as it was intended to sound.

music is different entirely though because it can be heard in different formats. i.e. live with amplified sound, on cd, live without amplified sound, etc. so considering that, what sound do you try to reproduce? the exact sound of what you are playing from the source? i would think so, but if you are, then you are only reproducing the sound of the song as recorded at that one moment. not as you remember it in concert, etc. perhaps you enjoyed the concert better than the cd, and therefore dont want to accurately reproduce the cd sound, but instead want it to sound more like the concert... again, im not talking about reproducing movie audio, just music.

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this is a very serious question i have. we all have goals for our home theatres or stereos, so what are the people's goals that listen to lots of MUSIC at home. i dont know, because that is not my passion about audio, i mainly listen to music in my car or off my computer.

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Your question could have a book written for a response - and books have undoubtedly been written about just what a recording is supposed to "sound like".

For me, a recording should produce the closest subjective impression of actually sitting in front of a group of performing musicians, and the recording should convey the impression of that music being performed in a space other than the listener's room (good ambience reproduction). The recording should have a sense of where the musicians are physically located within the imaginary "soundstage", and the tonality of the instruments and vocals (most important in classical, jazz and other purely acoustic music) should be such that they sound "real" verses like a recording of a real event.

This is a tall order to fill!!!! A lot depends on the listening room and the equipment (maninly the speakers) in the home, and the acoustics of the listening room. A bad listening room will make even the best system sound bad. There should be no "slap" or "flutter" echoes in the room for instance.

Multi-channel recordings (DVD-A, SACD) have a better chance of reproducing the "performance space" side than purely stereo recordings, although good stereo can be awfully impressive spatially. The "bass demo CDs" that I have circulated are pretty good examples of "purist" recording techniques that capture good "tonality" and a sense of "space".

With popular (rock etc.) music that is recorded in the studio using electronic instruments and which undergoes extensive post-processing during the mixdown process, anything goes - there is no "reality" that is being "reproduced". In this sense, these recordings are more like movie soundtracks where the original "event" is not something that actually existed in real space and in real time. The recording itself is the "real event" - if that makes sense.....

yeah it does make sense. it also tells me that trying to capture the best sound through only one means is pointless, and one would want to setup his system to suit the music that he likes. which also makes sense; however accuracy is also valued.

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As an exemple, I still prefer to listen to older mono recordings through only one speaker verses two or more speakers playing the same signal, or other processing. Mono through only one speaker sounds more "natural" to the format (mono) to me. It's all subjective

Howdy, Soundhound.........miss you my friend

I'm here if you have questions....just check 'yer sixguns with the bartender....

Actually you can still get THX certification as a Dealer/Installer of THX products. This includes spending 4 days at "The Ranch," and time at SkyWalker sound itself.

I'm actually on the waiting list to one day be a THX Certified Dealer/Installer.

THX is a lot more than a marketing ploy for home use.