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Author Topic: Which sounds better DA20/CP-65 or CP-500 Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-09-2006 04:16 PM                     quote: Jim Bedford I'll bet no one could tell the difference in a blind test in the same auditorium. You'd be wrong too. When one works with products a bunch...you start to notice their characteristics that "give them away." This can be good or bad. Steve  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 09-09-2006 04:23 PM                        True, but I think most people don't have as much screening room (or high level cinema setups in general) experience as you do where you have the opportunity to do real A/B comparisons, so a lot of people just say "DTS sounds better than Dolby Digital" because they may know one shitty location with SR*D and one decent one with DTS or the other way around. That is not a good basis for comparison. Plus many people don't hear nearly as well as they think they do, and blind testing often produces some illuminating and embarassing results even for people who fancy themselves "audiophiles".  |  IP: Logged Chris Hipp Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1462 From: Mesquite, Tx (east of Dallas) Registered: Jul 2003 posted 09-09-2006 04:34 PM                     I can't comment on comparison of sound, but I can say that I had almost no problems with the DA20's I used to work with at AMC. Of course we used them with an ultra-stereo processor. We also used cat700 white light readers and as long as the bulbs were good we never had problems tracking. I cannot say the same about the 650/cat701 combination we used in out big houses. Of course that could have been an installation issue.  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 09-09-2006 06:34 PM                     Michael, To expand on your comments...when I was at the Uptown and running changeovers...we had both DTS and Dolby Digital. I would sometimes get a patron that would help themselves into the booth to ask which digital system was in use because they much preferred one over the other...normally DTS because it has less compression...yadda, yadda, yadda. First, it is interesting that they chose to ignore the signs that said "PRIVATE" and came on in anyway... Next I would tell them that I would periodically switch which digital system was in use...and that I wanted them to tell me which was better sounding. Since both systems were using the same CP200 in the same theatre on the same film...it is a pretty fair test for any given film. I think without exception, IF they had a preference (many could not tell the difference at all), they chose the Dolby Digital reels as superior sounding...which really annoyed the ones that were pre-biased for another format. However, as to telling them apart...it has been awhile with me but during the DTS-6D/DA-20/SDDS days...I could tell you with better than 90% certainty which was playing. I could also tell you if EV speakers were in use or not (...particularly a DH1 driver or the DL15W drivers...they also have a sound all their own). I have had to walk out of some theatres that had a particularly offensive combination. We weren't into the film more than 5-minutes and I had picked out their system and had to leave while holding my ears.  |  IP: Logged Steve Scott Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1300 From: Minneapolis, MN Registered: Sep 2000 posted 09-09-2006 07:50 PM                     Indeed, I believe the blind comparison might stump one who was comparing the 650 & 65, but the 500 has a much brighter, sometimes harsher sound quality. But when A-chain levels are kept within spec & fader presets controlled, the 500 can produce a good-sounding, not overdriven sound. But plenty of the new builds around here from the late 90's did and sometimes still do suffer from their operators' inattention to fader levels, moreso than the previous set of 65-based builds, a great deal of which benefitted from only having one fader setting; which was mostly set a bit quieter than spec.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-09-2006 09:35 PM                     steve scott said "But when A-chain levels are kept within spec & fader presets controlled, the 500 can produce a good-sounding, not overdriven sound" no mater what the cp500 will sound harsh compar to an identically calibrated cp65  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 09-10-2006 12:23 PM                     The CP500 was good during the period it was introduced. The DA20 is no more due to ROHS / EU restrictions. I recently did a private screening with a client supplied CP650 and a penthouse and discovered the location had a CP45 set in the bi-amp mode I ended using the CP45 as a glorifed crossover via auxilary input and a quickly made custom kit of cables and let the CP650 do the rest You do what you need to do and it sounded excellent Now where is the thread which DTS product sounds better  |  IP: Logged Alex Grueneberg Expert Film Handler Posts: 125 From: Chicago, IL Registered: Aug 2004 posted 09-12-2006 01:51 AM                        I've always liked how my auditoriums with the DA-20/dfp-c3000 combo sound, when SDDS isn’t available. Not sure if that's what the tech heads would agree with though. Right behind that is the Da-20/Cp65 combo. Then a Cp500 (although, I agree with Steve the display is great in a large booth.) Oddly, I recently discovered one of the connection cables connecting a Da-20 to a Cp-65 had the left surrounds and right front channel flipped. My tech refused to believe me, until I proved it to him with the channel identifier test loop. Scored some major points on that one! We took the cable apart and it turned out it was actually soldered incorrectly by Dolby them selves . Auditorium #6 had been running like that for nearly six years. Don't worry Dolby, I still love you.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 09-12-2006 01:59 AM                        I wonder if Dolby even supplied the cable. But whoever did, the really embarassing thing is that this was not detected during the installation and setup. These things should not, but can happen, that is why they should be checked during installation and corrected.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 09-12-2006 10:02 AM                     I recently cleaned up and modified a new sound system for a performing arts center in which the sound consultant specified left / right stage channel ( like a home theatre ) for 35mm and left / right surrounds reversed based on his riser drawing using the stage to audience as a reference  |  IP: Logged Alex Grueneberg Expert Film Handler Posts: 125 From: Chicago, IL Registered: Aug 2004 posted 09-12-2006 12:21 PM                        The first movie I screened in #6 (The lake House) I could immediately tell something was fishy. I just don't understand how no one else noticed it for so long. And the cable was supplied by Dolby.  |  IP: Logged Michael Schaffer "Where is the Boardwalk Hotel?" Posts: 4143 From: Boston, MA Registered: Apr 2002 posted 09-12-2006 04:58 PM                        quote: Richard Fowler I recently cleaned up and modified a new sound system for a performing arts center in which the sound consultant specified left / right stage channel ( like a home theatre ) for 35mm and left / right surrounds reversed based on his riser drawing using the stage to audience as a reference That is pretty funny. Apart from the surround screwup, even a better home theater should have a hard center. Everyone should know that and why that is who has anything to do with sound systems of any kind. I wonder who the "sound consultant" was. Maybe they hired somebody really cheap, a self-appointed sound "expert" of which there are so many and got what they paid for.  |  IP: Logged David Stambaugh Film God Posts: 4021 From: Eugene, Oregon Registered: Jan 2002 posted 09-12-2006 06:42 PM                        Sorta off-topic, but Comcast, and prior to them AT&T Cable, has been broadcasting the local FOX affiliate KLSR with the left and right audio channels reversed for like 10 years. I notice it every time I watch the analog FOX channel. Car passes left-to-right, the sound pans right-to-left. Apparently nobody notices but me (btw, this is on multiple TVs). Not viewers, not Comcast, and not the station's own engineers.  |  IP: Logged Richard Fowler Film God Posts: 2392 From: Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA Registered: Jun 2001 posted 09-12-2006 07:23 PM                     The arts center is in good shape with the help of sharp on site management and coordinating with the staff live sound tech...he had his own issues with delays and crossovers on his part of the system  |  IP: Logged

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