my profile | my password | search | faq & rules | forum home

» Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE   » Community   » The Afterlife   » B-Chain for a Home Theatre System? (Page 2)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Author Topic: B-Chain for a Home Theatre System? Antonio Marcheselli Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1260 From: Florence, Italy Registered: Mar 2000 posted 03-16-2003 04:47 PM                        Ron, I do not agree with you. To have a similar situation with cinema, you should set the knob to -20dB and set 85dB (or 75, I read it too) on the amps. Just today I made a test with my home yamaha. At -20dB the LFE output reach 0.0dB without clipping. Bye Antonio  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-16-2003 05:58 PM                     I've done this several times both with my R-2 and with my Ivie and a single mic. I've done it both for home film systems, and home video. Always sounds better when eq'd, especially in the mids. Keep in mind though that if you have extremely flat response speakers doing this is not really nesessary. I ahve DYnaudio speakers that are very flat...depending on placement.... but eq'ing a so-so set of speakers does make a drastic improvement. Mark  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 03-16-2003 06:00 PM                        That means that the majority of all 'audiophiles' will never need to eq their system because we all know that they'd never have 'so-so' speakers -- their stuff is only the best.  |  IP: Logged Ron Lacheur Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 650 From: British Columbia, Canada Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-16-2003 06:17 PM                     Thanks for the correction Antonio, You probably just saved my future speakers! I must have read 2 different threads at a HT forum, and confused them.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-16-2003 08:02 PM                     Daryl, It does make a huge improvement with those so called system speakers, or such as the stuff you'd get at Ultimate Electronics, or other department store outlets. Mark  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 03-16-2003 08:16 PM                        I totally agree Mark. It's just funny how some people think that the speakers they likely paid way too much for are always second to none -- at least until they can afford an even more expensive pair. Of course, like you pointed out, placement and the room can make huge differences that may require an eq to flatten the systems response. I used to have a pair of dbx 1231's in my car, but I won't go there.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 03-16-2003 09:24 PM                     IMHO, good home theater equipment (particularly the combination of receiver/surround controller and speakers) should have a really good tone without adding in any extra, outboard EQ. For good mid-range priced speakers, I like Paradigms. They have a smooth, clean sound that doesn't seem colored or constrained. And their subs have a satisfying amount of "slam" to them. I don't like any of the DSP stuff often included in receivers, mainly since it adds all kinds of distracting reverb and other junk to the sound --especially in the surrounds. I feel the DSP stuff also masks out other audio details in the mix. For my own listening choice, I figure if the soundtrack was meant to have a bunch of reverb or other effects added to it, the sound designer would have added it to the mix. So I just run the straight Dolby Digital, DTS and Pro-Logic programs on my Yamaha receiver. And then when I listen to CDs, I hit the "Effect Off" button to defeat the Pro-Logic circuit and get straight 2 channel sound. Pink noise generators in receivers are great. But I think most manuals and remote controls make such tools difficult for a lot of people. So many folks will just live with how ever the factory defaults sound instead of balacing the stage and surround channels properly. Every room is different and will have different needs on speaker settings.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-16-2003 11:08 PM                     I've used the smaller Paradigms for surrounds in small movie theatres with excellent results. They were really cheap and provided an excellemt response. Can't ever remember having to replace one either...... At home I had sold off my high end system(kept my Dynaudio speakers though!) and bought a Sony DD ES Reciever with all the bells and whistles. Biggest mistake I ever made! So it sits and just gets used for switching the video signal to my HDTV set. I am really a 2 chan fan anyway.... So now I'm back to high end stuff but this time having built everything myself and saving thousands in the process. I now have a better system than I started out with! Anyone interested in building your own high end gear should go over to www.diyaudio.com and sign up for the forum and check it out!! Mark  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-25-2003 07:13 PM                     "Most rooms at home do not have as strong an effect on the sound as a large cinema and the speakers are not behind the screen. Like Greg said, a lot of home equipment does not have eq-ing capabilities comparable to cinema equipment, and adding external equalisation may not be worth the trouble. They don`t have to handle as high levels and dynamic range like cinema speakers anyway. " _____________________________________________________________ I completely disagree with the assesment above. Rooms at home have an equal effect acoustically vs. the size of the room. Its usually easier to make minor acoustical correections at home than in a theatre though. For instance, my listening room suffers from side wall reflections, but its easier to correct for it and the panels do not need to be as thick to do the job. EQ'ing at home is not necessary if one buys really top of the line speakers in the first place. Take just about any of the Dynaudio speakers for instance.....they all have pretty flat response within their capabilities, so selecting a speaker that it similar to any of these would get you a pretty flat at home response assumming you don't have too much absorbtion built in like thick carpeting or such. Also, it is absolutely necessary to be able to reproduce as much dynamic range at home as it is in the theatre, and actually, at home you would want even more dynamic range capability thaneven the finest movie theatre sound system is capable of in order to reproduce the new generation of high resolution audio CD's. These disks have dynamic range capabilities approaching the loundess of a jet engine.....Fortunately Dynaudio's tweeters,and at least one other I know about can do this with ease, as they are capable of repeated 1kw pulses, and cruise at lower power levels needed for these life like reproduction levels. Mark  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 03-26-2003 10:40 AM                     So -- what would be more cost-effective for someone like us with RTA and experience in setting up theatres? The best speakers in the whole entire universe? Or...So-So speakers and an equalizer? Bye. M.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 03-26-2003 07:09 PM                     In my experience its better to build, or buy the best speakers you can afford first. Check the used market after deciding what you want as you can save a ton!. Just be sure they have not been abused. Then at a later time spend the bucks on the best electronics you can afford. Use the building block method and start at the speaker end. My Dynaudios were purchased new, but I built my Pass Labs Aleph 2's and Pass Labs preamp, and they are better built than the factory stuff is. There are many advantages to building your own electronics if you are into that sort of thing. I saved over 8K just by building my own electronics. Manny, Check out www.diyaudio.com Also, http://www.dynaudiousa.com/main2.htm Mark  |  IP: Logged Rob van Ede Film Handler Posts: 25 From: Zeist, The Netherlands Registered: Sep 2002 posted 03-28-2003 11:56 AM                        I would say build the speakers yourself using good (pro) drivers and buy a good processor to tune the system. This way you can make directional speakers (horns) so you don't need to worry about sidewall reflections and use the processor to eliminate standing waves that every room has. I've built two such systems with horns and digital processor for home use and the results are excellent. Rob  |  IP: Logged Steve Anderson Expert Film Handler Posts: 168 From: Nashville, TN Registered: Feb 2000 posted 03-28-2003 04:27 PM                        Manny, use this link to go to Digital Eyes http://www.digitaleyes.net/details.cfm?info=OVA5867DVD Avia Guide To Home Theater $34.97 I looked up Video Essentials and they said out of print. Hope this helps  |  IP: Logged Manny Knowles "What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???" Posts: 4247 From: Bloomington, IN, USA Registered: Feb 2002 posted 04-01-2003 09:56 PM                     I don't understand why there would be no need to EQ because isn't the whole point of EQ'ing to counteract the effects of the room? How does the manufacturer know what kind of room I've got? What are the parameters of a room that would not need to be EQ'd?  |  IP: Logged

All times are Central (GMT -6:00)

This topic comprises 2 pages: 1  2

Printer-friendly view of this topic

Hop To: Select a Forum: Category: Operations -------------------- Digital Cinema Forum Film Handlers' Forum Large Format Forum Ground Level Feature Info, Trailer Attachments & REAL Credit Offsets Category: Community -------------------- Film-Yak Film Handlers' Movie Reviews The Afterlife Bob Maar's Joke-A-Thon Category: Classified -------------------- Equipment and Supplies Wanted/For Sale Help Wanted/Seeking Employment Category: System -------------------- Software Beta Testing Forum

The Film-Tech Forums are designed for various members related to the cinema industry to express their opinions, viewpoints and testimonials on various products, services and events based upon speculation, personal knowledge and factual information through use, therefore all views represented here allow no liability upon the publishers of this web site and the owners of said views assume no liability for any ill will resulting from these postings. The posts made here are for educational as well as entertainment purposes and as such anyone viewing this portion of the website must accept these views as statements of the author of that opinion and agrees to release the authors from any and all liability.