Home Theaters

That was something my grandmother used to say to me. It makes no more sense about some things today as it made back when she was alive. However, some instances lend themselves to this sort of inscrutable logic.

So it is with the choices I make here, when I write. I am writing about home theater, yet in the back of my mind, with nearly every word written is the thought that for many, and always me, the home theater system is also the stereo system, and it will see much more duty as that. For me, I watch a movie and rarely watch it again for some time. For many movies, I never watch again. This is not always because I did not like the movie. Sometimes, it is simply so good at doing its job that the story and visuals stay with me, not needing to be refreshed.

For music, it may have something to do with the fact that we remember less of what we hear than what we see, but I think it is something very primal. Music does indeed soothe. That may be why I choose to listen to music much of the non-working waking hours, instead of watching something.

With this in mind, I always try to think of how the system will sound as a music reproduction unit, and it makes choices different, and more difficult.

If a subwoofer is being chosen for what the usual ‘theater types’ refer to as LFE, or low frequency effects, it matters little how the unit sounds with real music. The subwoofer in these cases is being called upon to cause excitement, to enable the ‘like you are there’ nature to bombastic events, like explosions, jet aircraft takeoffs, and the obliteration of large objects.

this is the Original VMPS subwoofer, it sounds great with music, and does a good job with LFE, a really great buy if you can find one used. I have a pair of these used with Infinity Infinitesimal RS 0.12s. The sound is marvelous, and puts much more expensive systems to shame. (These are old now, but work well. Point here is that quality like this was normal in the 80’s, before people were convinced that great sound quality for entire room could be had from something the size of a toothpick [small exaggeration])

On the other hand, if my choice is a subwoofer because I want to hear the first octave of music, it is usually much harder a choice, as the sonic character of the sub will be much more noticed. The way it rolls off, and the main speakers take over must be much more smooth. The frequency response curve must overlap just so, and the upper harmonics of the sub must either match the drivers of the main system, or be eliminated. The subwoofer used for LFE simply has to be loud.

Apologies to George, but every THX setup I have ever heard is nowhere near what I call good sound - either in quality or quantity.

The choice of a good sounding low frequency device is made harder by the fact that so many people choose to compare against music, as is shown by the abhorrent sound quality of many THX-certified theaters. The low frequency effects are there, and in great volume, but they rarely sound convincing - at least to anyone who bothers to listen and compare. 

this is a current VMPS subwoofer design, it will give your system the punch you want for ‘effects’ yet sound good with music - what a concept!

When choosing the main speakers, the home theater user only casually interested in stereo reproduction will choose speakers that sound good, and make certain that the center channel speaker is almost identical to the left and right speakers. This is fine for the purpose of viewing movies, but when using this system as a stereo, for critical music listening, it is very close to impossible to have great sound from this type of setup.

if you’re looking for this

you definitely don’t want this!

The reason is simple. The two types of systems here are at odds, and so getting a dual purpose speaker system here is like having Hulk Hogan fill in for your favorite ballerina in a production of Swan Lake.  In a good stereo system, the two speakers are chosen to produce a sound field in front of the user, and the field must be a panorama. There is no center channel, and a good stereo pair will have no problem with a musician in the exact center, or anything else, for that matter. The thing that most do not understand is that this type of reproduction is relying on a great recording. That is to say that this is high fidelity reproduction. The system merely reproduces what is on the recording, whether tape, compact disc, or FM tuner is being used. If good sound is not in the original recording, it will not be reproduced by this system.

The home theater system, comprised of 6 or more speakers, unlike the stereo system of 2, or possibly 3 speakers, is designed to  sound less natural, to force the extremes of sound, and of directional cues in that sound. For this reason, the makers of many of these home theater speakers will purposely limit the sound field that the speaker is capable of recreating. This becomes especially apparent when going from 3 speakers in front for theater, to 2 speakers for music. The ‘hole in the middle’ is apparent, yet with a good stereo setup no hole in the middle would exist, if the recorded material was done properly.

All of this is written as a preface to the next couple of entries, where I will be talking about a couple of really fine speakers, that have been acclaimed as quality of both build and sound, and have been around for some years. These would make a great choice for the dual purpose system most of us have, and then the rest of the 5, 6, or 7 channel system can be acquired, trying closely to match the characteristics of the center, sides, and rear speakers to the really fine stereo pair.

(Can you guess what speakers I might be talking about?)