THX is awesome

liv4fam

What does everybody think of THX for the Home. personally I love it and it's badass.

mantis

We got a big new group of people in here...lets hear it.

Any comments about THX?any insight why it is a good thing or a bad thing?

liv4fam

Everybody in here should buy THX certified products just for the Timbre Matching...........;)

But Ultra wouldn't work because as people say in here

"Scotty we need more power"
" My RTI70's can handle 400 watts so I need 800 watts bi-amped"

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

mantis

Scotty replies,
"Captain I'm giving yeah all the power she got."

liv4fam

Adaptive Decorreleation? I know do you?
Timbre Matching? I know do you?
Re-Eq? I know do you?

Dedicated to Mantis.

gidrah

I remeber back when speakers had the "Digital Ready" stamp of approval. I didn't buy into that stamp and I won't buy into this one.

Sure it's nice to have, but it has about .01% validity when I consider a piece.

Besides:
"THX Ultra2 gear is designed for rooms averaging at least 3,000 cubic feet in volume, while THX Select gear is designed for rooms averaging 2,000 cubic feet" S&V Nov. 2002

If I had a room this large, I'd use horns. Probably either Altec or Tannoy. Neither of which have the coveted stamp. I guess, just because the Voice of the Theater speakers defined quality theater sound, and these teamed with quality tube amps create sonic perfection is something that doesn't matter in George's eyes and thus needn't be considered is just proof.

Is there a THX rated tube amp?

F1nut

THX, pffff. SRS SDA, now they stand for great sound!

phuz

It's overated and overpriced. Meaningless for most home applications.

goingganzo

i would not buy thx cirted speakers or amps i would buy thx prossers that is where thx cert gives you sothing all the others just say that the speaker is good

ntculenuff

if i wanted to throw away a few hundred dollars for a stamp i would buy equip and wires that have a thx stamp, but maybe i will just spend the extra $$'s on the euipment itself instead of the stamp.. oh but what a pretty stamp it is bla bla bla

MxStYlEpOlKmAn

got a marker?

jdavy

THX certification is great for where your sound in the most criticle. Example are your speaker wires and your digital decoder.

Best sound decoding is DTS. Hands down the best for movies and not bad for audio as well if you like surround sound music.

BTW F1nut it is SDA-SRS or Stereo Dimentional Array- Signiture Reference System. And yes for two channel audio or PCM encoded movies those babies can not be touched. Simply awsome.

F1nut

jdavy,

Yeah, you're right. What can I say, it was 4:19 am when I posted that. I know what it stands for, I own some and they are AWESOME!!!

liv4fam

Man I really get a kick of listening to you guys go.

SO what you are saying is that THX is not designed for the home and does absolutely nothing for your Home Theater and it's just a badge so you have to pay more money. RIGHT?

I feel differently on the subject. Home THX was designed to deal with the problems of transferring and playing back movies that were mixed for a very large theater and then playing back the same movie in a small sized home theater environment.

Now I can't speak for all of you but me personally as an installer have never installed a hometheater that was anywhere near the size of a commercial theater room.

So with that in mind I can speak from experience and say that most theaters benefit from what a THX certified processor can give you.

Every movie that is mixed is for a commercial theater not the home and THX knows that so what they did is give the consumer (or better yet the installer) the ability to fine tune the theater system they are working.

Now most of you probably don't care about room acousticsand room nodes but I do and I deal with the situations everyday so having the room equalization circuit and full bass peak manager and adaptive decorrealation is priceless.

In almost every system that I have done there is always a problem with pre-amps and receivers that do no have some sort of RE-EQ circuit in as the movie will always sound overly bright as the high frequency roll-off is designed for a large room and in Home theater applications where the listener is sitting close to the center channel obviously gets overpowered with sound. Since most companies of today acknowledges this a problem they do offer there version of RE_EQ but it derives from the THX HOME standard and it most all cases still doesn't get you the flexibility to effectively tailor the room.

I think Home THX is not a badge or a seal of approval it is a tool to make the room respond as close to how a commercial theater responds just on a smaller scale and that is there whole point and that is what they offer nothing more they do not label THX products as better than everyone elses they just let you experience movies and the mixer intended and as I own a THX Ultra receiver (B&K AVR-307) to where I can fully tailor my room I think it is golden as now my room sounds better than ever and it just couldn't be achieved without having the THX circuits in there to overcome my problems.

Hope this gave somebody a better understanding of what THX products are trying to accomplish

gidrah

But is there a THX approved tube amp?

You'd think, with all the time it takes to release a movie to DVD, they would mix it down a little for home use.

Is there some sort of option that all THX rated processors give that the rest don't. I don't know, maybe there is and you can give us a better understanding.

I don't have a dedicated theater and probably never will. The closest I'll get is a dedicated multi-channel audio room that also plays movies.

RuSsMaN

It's the 'magic' circuitry inside.

Liv, did you buy THX certified speakers too?

Cheers,
Russ

MxStYlEpOlKmAn

THX to me is a little stamp that they put on stuff for craps and giggles!

HBombToo

Originally posted by liv4fam
Adaptive Decorreleation? I know do you?
Timbre Matching? I know do you?
Re-Eq? I know do you?

Dedicated to Mantis.

Do you have equalization curves you can share with the forum from any of your installs? I would be real interested in seeing a delta in the curves with and without the THX Standard.

I don't think thats tooo much to ask from a professional... Do Ya?

HBomb

liv4fam

No russ I do not have THX certified speakers nor do I have THX rated video sources or a THX certified equalizer.

But I am not trying to do a full THX certified room as I do not have a dedicated theater room that I watch movies in.
But I am saying that having a THX certified receiver has helped me battle my room nodes and peaks and dips in my room.
The B&K has some of the best room equalization circuitry in it that I have ever seen.
For instance my room resonates really bad around 48 HZ and rolls into about 53 HZ at plus 8db so I used the equalization circuitry to filter that range from 46.7HZ to 54.2HZ at -8db to limit that frequency range back to flat for the rest of the frequency sweep. I also have a bad reflection point from the ceiling for my center channel which gives me a +3db gain without the THX circuit engaged and listening to regular DD and DTS but with it engaged I loose that resonance and get flat frequency response with no gain or unnatural harshness or over brightness.

I have to say too that listening to my Laserdisc player without THX and using Pro-Logic it pretty much is boring but again using the THX circuit I get a more spatial soundstage and better seperation because the THX circuit uses Time Phasing and shifting to give a sense of seperation in the rears even though I am not using four pairs of rears like the theater does. So to me I think it is very worht it and it works for me.

So in closing if you guys think it is dumb and a waste of money that's okay by me. I am not trying to convince you that is good I think it serves a purpose for anybodies given system and I have found that I use there features everyday and I hope they keep up the good work and I am really looking forward until I get to work with a lot of the new THX Ultra 2 stuff out there.

Ooooopppss.......I forgot. I do not know of a THX certified tube amp and I don't think there are any as Tubes wouldn't really make a cost effective amp to use for theater.

TroyD

I'll pass on this re-hash.

BDT

TroyD

didn't someone have a pic of George Lucas's studio having non-THX B&W's ?

BDT

F1nut

Yes, yes they did.

RuSsMaN

Yeah, but THAT rig is for non-hard rock soundtracks only. We all know Bowers & Wilkins fall apart with hard rock.

Cheers,
Rooster

liv4fam

Alright so I guess the subject is dead.

You all think it's dumb and advertising and I think it works well.

We all have our opinions.

Thanks for playing

TroyD

I didn't say that it's without value. However, I do feel that for most folks, resources can be better utilized than worrying about THX certification.

BDT

gidrah

Would this THX equalization do anything beyond that of what a combination parametric & graphic could do?

You can pick up a mono tube amp for around $100.00 nowadays.

gidrah

What about THX rated electrostatics or full-range speakers? What about High-Efficiency horns?

Is there a THX recommended volume rating?

You know, but do I?

liv4fam

Gidrah,

Yes there is a THX volume recommended it's called your receiver or preamps reference mark.

When you use a Test disc or the receivers internal Test Tone generator it should test tone at the reference level or if it is a low budget one and you have to manually turn up the volume all you have to do is turn it up to where you get a 75db level at your mains and balance the rest the system off of it and that would be your THX recommended reference level. In most cases it will be 0db on receivers with a digital volume control.

But as most home theaters (ie. living rooms, bedrooms, family rooms) can not not withstand this pressure level you will find that the reference level will be too loud but if you have a controlledd environment like a dedicated theater room that has been properly treated and acoustically balanced then it is a lot more likely that the reference level will be achieved.

Mono Tube for 100.00? Where? In fantasy land maybe.
I was talking about amanufacturer produced tube amp not a backdoor garage my friend built this tube amp.

Anyways I haven't seen no theater that has used tube amps for every channel nor do i think I ever will.

TroyD

Mono Tube for 100.00? Where? In fantasy land maybe.

Actually, you can find them. I can't remember the name offhand but they are (I think) 3wpc tube monos. 99 bucks each or some such. Russ probably remembers the name.

BDT

RuSsMaN

Antique Sound Labs Wave 8, 10wpc continuous, tube monoblocks, $99 each, $119 each with metal cover.

They are on my 'short' list for 2003.

Cheers,
Russ

gidrah

.....and Bingo was his name-o.

They even made my Christmas wish list for this year.