Well, I wouldn't ignore the picture totally! It's pretty common for audio quality to be less of a focus when there is a picture to look at. The IMAX sound path is no different than any theatrical release: they are mixed in the same dubbing facilities with the same equipment. The quality of the master material is actually very good, usually starting with 24 bit digital master recordings - it's just the playback chain that is made for high volume levels and high reliability rather than fine sound quality. If for instance the center dialog channel speaker failed, the entire house would have to be refunded.

Your home speakers can do much better with detail, although they of course won't go nearly as loud without risk of damage. The large-format (4") compression drivers and constant directivity horns used in all high-SPL theater systems for the frequencies above 500Hz sound harsh, which is a tradeoff for their high SPL capability.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited June 02, 2004).]