Do you really need an expensive home theatre? I don't
Dec 28 '01
The Bottom Line the home movie theatre system shouldn't be expensive. stereo system should be.
It took me two months to make a decision on my first home theatre system. It's already about a month after I bought it. Here are my thoughts.
1. I spent hours in audio rooms, before I came to a conclusion that small speakers do well for movies. Maybe because most of the information comes from video, and the audio is mostly speach and effects.
Human voice's generated by "devices" of small size. That's why it seems to me that bookshelf speakers are of comparable dimensions with human physique. Tweeters are about 1", and woofers are about 5-6", boxes ~10-15". The fact that they are of the same size as human physique, gives them an opportunity to match our voices closely. You don't need big speakers to hear your favourite actors. That's for sure.
Effects are mostly low-frequency or high frequency, and theya are also short. E.g. bullets, swords swinging about your ears, race cars, screams in the corner of the room. Bookshelf speakers are fine for effects. Even when they distort sounds, you don't notice - because effects are not for 1-2 minutes, they last about seconds at most. The the action will take your breathe, you won't have time for sound quality analysis.
That was a theory. In practice, I watches Matrix in audio room with Bose subwoofer-satellites package. It was great!
My Kenwood-504 is just as fine for movies as my friends kilo-bucks priced Infinity-Harman-Kardon system! I bet, only crazy audiofle may notice a difference.
2. On the other hand, listening music is not as enjoyable as watching movies with bookshelf speakers. Why? Because characteristic dimensions of musical instruments are much bigger than of bookshelf speakers. You can't do anything about that. Only increasing the size may help. Only.
I saw an advertising of Bose speakers. They claim that they invented new type of speakers. They are small, but inside they have long sound paths. So, having 3" speaker, you may let sound travel 15-20" in the corridors. That increases the characteristic size of sound elements. That's right. But I think that this trick should bring new distortions to sound. No, I don't just think, I'm sure it does.
I listened small and tiny speakers from Bose, Sony and others in sound rooms. They are not good for music. My system is not good too. It's Ok. I listen a lot of music. But I always feel that there's no depth. Subwoofer helps a lot to fill the room. But it doesn't have enough "resolution" to me. I want HUGE speakers, three way.
3. What to do if I want both movies and music on the same system?
Obvious answer: to buy large and expensive speaker system. Wrong.
I bought the small home theatre in a box. My receiver has two main speakers out. I'll buy later the large speakers for music. When I want to listen music, I'll simply switch to large speaker pair. So, I won't have to buy matching subwoofer, surrounds and center speaker for large speakers. I'll save hundreds bucks.
4. Recently, I put Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in my theatre. Yo Yo Ma's chello was amazing. I thought "It deserves better main speakers". :) Well, this is very rear situation. There's always a compromise.
5. Quality. Expensive speakers tend to have better warranties, and SHOULD last longer. This is my only concern for going with cheap solution. My speakers' woofers are paper made. I guess they shouldn't work ages :)
So, in ten years I hope I'll have at least my second main speakers pair working :)
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Epinions.com ID:
jawabean
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Reviews written: 7
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