Some of us were discussing our preferences of Movie Theatre vs. Home Theater in the Favorite Demos section in the LOTR-ROTK thread. In trying to allow that thread to be more about the movie, I’m putting my next comment here.

I’m not trying to put down movie theatre sound, I’m just saying that a theatre owner has different goals than I do when it comes to audio. The owner’s goal is not to suit my tastes or overcome what a small minority of people perceive as shortcomings of the audio in a typical theatre situation. If the owner can maintain a venue that will satisfy 80% of the population, the owner will have success and that may suffice. Certainly it is more difficult to achieve satisfying audio in a movie theatre than at home.

Of course people have preferences too. I may rate a movie theatre’s audio as a 7.5 out of 10 and my home theater as a 8.5 out of 10. Someone else may have the opposite opinion. Regardless, I wouldn’t say such a hypothetical 1-point difference means that the movie theatre is “lousy” while my home theater is “near perfect.” For me it comes down to a preference for home theater, that’s all.

There are family members of mine that think, “I’ll pay the movie theatre prices and let them be concerned with the venue.” As for me, I would rather be concerned about it myself and enjoy the process of research, purchase, setup, and tweak to my heart’s content. I enjoy the pursuit!