Which DVD to watch...

audiobliss

I was wonderin' for when I finally make my big purchase and bring home some nice speakers (hopefully this month), what DVD should I watch? My selection is limited: Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Patton, and The Two Towers and Fellowship of the Rings. Which of those have the most bass and could I appreciate the most with some nice new speakers?

Thanks.

gatemplin

All of those movies have awesome bass and sound effects except Patton. It is a good movie but not for effects and sound.

What speakers are you planning to get?

Strong Bad

If you have Saving Private Ryan in DTS, give that one a shot. The opening beach landing is still near the top in demo material.

I love the opening of Fellowship and the battle with Sauron.

WOW, they're all great selections though. How about watching them all!


John

audiobliss

lol; I bet I will watch them all, but...which one first?....

In the speaker forum thread "RB-35": my debate on whether to go with Klipsch speakers or Paradigms. I'm hopefully going to bring a pair of Paradigm's home this weekend and see what they sound like; after that I'll be able to make a better decision.

I've already watched Saving Private Ryan, but not the others. (Well, I watched the Lord of the Rings stuff in the theater; that's different.) I might try Black Hawk Down; that have some pretty good bass and effects?

Thanks.

audiobliss

gatemplin,

I just noticed that you have some Paradigm speakers; could ya give me somt opinions and thoughts for me to mull over? Maybe in the other thread.

Thanks!

warviper

Saving Private Ryan is intense. Having up near refrence levels will make you cringe.

audiobliss

warviper,

I'm glad you said that about reference leves; what exactly ARE reference levels? Also, aren't decibels an objective, fixed unit of measuring volume? If so, how come -40dB on one receiver is so much louder than -40dB on another receiver using the same speakers? And, how can the measure be negative??

I bet this should be in another forum, but sure don't know where; direct me there and I'll take my questions there. Or just answer e'm.

therockman

warviper,
I am very curious, what are reference levels? I like to listen to movies with the main dialog at approximately 66-72 db (measured at the listening position with a digital SPL meter), depending on how many people are over watching the movie. Of course if the dialog is running at about 70 decibles, then the action sound effects often gets well over 100 db, and on The Terminator 3 RISE OF THE MACHINES, I had the dialog set at 68 db, and the action sequences often touched 108 db. So what is "reference level"?


Rocky

hamzahsh

The opening scene in LOTR-TTT when Gandalf falls along with Balrog and then fights with him has some 20hz bass notes and lot of surround sound effects as well.

Also the Helm's Deep Explosion in LOTR-TTT has lot of deep bass especially when the big rock hits the ground.

Ron-P

The best bass scene so far I've found is in Matrix: Revolutions just as the drilling machines bore into the Dock area. My buddy had to hold the door to the HT and he said it felt as though someone was on the outside trying to pull it open.

Also, the cannon battle scenes in Master and Commander. Excellent bass there as well.

kberg

All of your flick picks are great, but if I had to choose just one from them, I'd go with SPR in DTS, as said before. It just can't be beat. The others have awesome "parts", but as far as awesome bass throughout most of the movie, SPR wins, IMO.

audiobliss

Thanks, y'all; I just might go with Saving Private Ryan. I sorta forgot to say that I'm getting bookshelf speakers that go down to only 45 Hz. And I don't have a sub. So, I'm not really going to be able to benefit from a lot of that good ol' deep bass. I sorta forgot about that.

Anyhoo, I still ought to be able to get something out of my speakers, don't ya think?

Dr. Spec

If you want to calibrate your system to Reference Level, set your Master Volume to 00 and adjust all channels until they are reading 85 dB, if you are using Avia. For the subwoofer, try anywhere from 85-87 dB on the meter. Using the 90 scale for the sub calibration will result in less needle fluctuation. 85-87 dB on the meter will result in a 2-4 dB "hot" calibration on the sub.

Dolby reference level is defined as 105 dB bass peaks from any surround channel, and 115 dB bass peaks from the LFE channel - as measured at the listening position. The reason the LFE channel is higher, is because your DD/DTS pre/pro automatically boosts that channel 10 dB.

If the surround speakers are set to “small”, the subwoofer is required to handle both low passed surround channel bass and the LFE channel. In the event of simultaneous bass peaks in multiple surround channels and the LFE channel, the subwoofer would be required to deliver up to a 121 dB bass peak at RL as measured at the listening position. Now you can appreciate how demanding RL can truly be on a subwoofer, especially when all speaks are set to small!

There is one variable on the whole RL concept, and that's the actual DVD mastering level. I wish I could say that setting the Master Volume to 00 after RL calibration with Avia or S&V always yielded sound pressure peaks of 105 dB in the surround channels and 115 dB in the LFE channel every time for every Dolby Digital DVD, but it just isn't true. Some DVDs are mastered very hot, and other ones are not.

So ultimately it's best to view RL calibration more as a standardized benchmark for enthusiasts to compare Master Volume settings on playback than to view it as an absolute playback level, because we can't control the mastering level in DVD movies.

The only way to really be sure you are playing back at true Dolby Reference Level is with an SPL meter at the seat (and correction factors if the meter is C-weighted). Most of the hot bass peaks on DVDs are in the 25-30 Hz region, so I would suggest using an average correction factor of 3-4 dB on C-weighted Fast. If you are hitting bass peaks in the 113-116 dB region on the meter, you are very close to true Reference Level.

Most subs can’t cleanly hit true RL at the seat, and many enthusiasts find it far too loud for comfortable playback anyway. Personally, I play back most of my DVDs at around 10 clicks under RL (but some as low as -15, and others as high as -5).