Home Theaters

Part of the answer to that question is readily apparent to anyone who is reading this column on a regular basis. The population has become enamored of the ‘total experience’ of the home theater. Home theaters are great, but few remember that the whole is a sum of parts, and the part that has been neglected is the audio.

There are good reasons for this.

While not many have attended a concert in a proper symphony hall,

this is what  most of the populace has been missing.

most have seen virtually everything presented upon a television or movie screen. This shows that while some dismiss the poorer absolute quality of audio that is considered acceptable, it is only that way due to uneducated and inexperienced ears prevailing.

In my time as a salesman of audio and video equipment, I built a reputation as someone who was uninfluenced by the needs of the market, or to the dismay of employers, their bottom lines. I believed that I (and the companies I worked for) would always be farther ahead if basic honesty was the rule. I never tried to pull any of the standard audio purveyor’s tricks on unsuspecting customers. Instead, I gave the plusses and minuses, and showed each component sold in its best light. This was common before the beginning of the Home Theater era. Since the advent of theaters in the home, any sort of objective audio analysis has been replaced by the subjective needs of budget and braggadocio. The first time assembler of a home theater system is thinking how to best spend his money to achieve 2 results – maximum bombastic effect and  maximum covet factor. He wants anyone treated to a ‘performance’ to be at once bowled over and envious. Choices based upon individual reflection would yield better results – closer to what is desired, both in terms of audio quality and envy factor.

This is, more than anything else, a result of the overtly materialistic nature of those our culture has turned out lately.

Another problem I see is environmental factors that are mutually exclusive. Only the most wealthy have the luxury of constructing a room

  wouldn’t everyone like to come home and find this, added on to the house they left that morning?

that will be used for the home theater / audio experience. Most of us must use a re-purposed room made acceptable by careful treatments.

Because of the constraints, time, money, space, and lack of real knowledge of what is real sound, the consumer has to rely on a best guess, from himself, or someone else, to achieve the desired effects.

In the next couple of installments, I am striving to show how audio is the core, and how by using personal tastes, knowledge available, and cost effective choices, anyone can achieve a much higher level of realism, and therefore, enjoyment, than usually possible at any price point – from the sublime to the ridiculous!   Stick with me.

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