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Good movie/scene to test surround sound with?


spencersmb

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Wondering what movies everyone uses to test their setup with? A specific scene that shows off all the channels? Something they know has rear speaker effect, surround side-rear, etc. 

 

I have an old pioneer VSX-1021-K (7.1) receiver that I'm currently using but can't seem to make it just do 5.1...I can only do 5.1 with an option to put the rear speakers as the rears, or as rear surrounds. However I've noticed that some movies only use rear surround audio, or just the rear speaker channel but not rear surround, and sometimes both on newer movies.

 

Cheers,

Spencer

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Spoiler alert!  Near the beginning of The Grey there is a plane crash from the passengers' point of view.   We only have 5.1, with the surround speakers somewhat behind our heads, rather than directly to the sides as some people do.  This creates a better sound image in our room:

     image.png.327a8ab5726f12098ba6d6133aa7a240.png

 

During that scene there is sound all around us, with the kind of detail we might expect from many more channels, rather than 5.1.   There were a minimum of 3 phantom channels down each side of the room, between the Right Front and the Surround Right, and Left Front and Surround Left, about 2 phantoms in the back of the room, as well as the usual 7 or so across the front of the room.  So, counting physical + phantom, there were about 15 sound loci.  There was even a suggestion of up and down, mostly up (all of out speakers have tweeters slightly above ear level).    It sounded like we were surrounded by metallic walls, ceiling and floor which were breaking apart.  So far, no other movie has provided such a convincing illusion in our room.

 

Holding the room and seating constant, the most important factor in providing how good the surround is would be how it is recorded, IMO.  Some recordists and mixers take great pains to make sure it's good, others don't seem to care.

 

Others will suggest films with good surround treatment of music.   Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, the first crowd sounds at the very beginning of A Star is Born (2018) come to mind.

 

There are a few other things that may be different about our set-up.  Because we have Klipschorns, the Right Front and Left Front speakers are placed in the corners, as opposed to the way they are shown in the diagram.  The Klipschorns are 13.5 feet apart, tweeter to tweeter (16.75 feet wide, sidewall to sidewall).  The front soundstage is a little wider, partly due to the surrounds and the Klipschorns painting the side walls with sound (sometimes).  We sit about 12 feet from the center speaker, making the sound field just about 60 degrees wide.  The 13.5 width doesn't conflict with the visual image width, because our projection screen is 130" wide ('scope 2.35:1).    The center speaker (a modified Belle Klipsch) has had its distance electronically adjusted to the same distance as the Klipschorns by Audyssey (which does that in terms of time of arrival, down to 0.1 foot).  The tweeters of the surrounds are a few inches higher than the front tweeters.

 

 

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My go to scene for a demo for non atmos surround sound is in the first Jurassic Park when the trex is chasing the smaller dinosaurs and young Timmy says they are flocking this way. This scene on Blu-ray will rock a 5.1 or 7.1 setup. Every channel is very active.

 

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"Flight of the Phoenix" dust storm/crash scene.  By far one of the best for LFE scenes as well as surround realism.  My go to demo scene for the last decade.

Related image

 

Link below is geared toward LFE content but many apply in the surround sound thing also.

http://data-bass.ipbhost.com/topic/12-the-low-frequency-content-thread-films-games-music-etc/

 

Bill

 

 

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4 hours ago, Islander said:

"House of Flying Daggers" has a scene called "The Echo Game" that has a large circle of vertically-mounted drums being hit, first just a few, then a cascade of drumbeats all around.  It's quite good.

 

 

 

I discovered this movie because Kathleen Battle sings the song whose leitmotif is featured throughout the movie.   I think this movie would surprise a lot of people - it's not really about martial arts.   This scene where we first see The Echo Game is pretty cool - Mei can't resist the challenge of The Echo Game, and it becomes apparent that she is not the "poor helpless blind girl" she pretends to be.   Zhang Ziyi is gorgeous ...

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  • 4 years later...

Testing surround sound setups can be a lot of fun. One of my go-to movies for this is "Interstellar." There's a particular scene where the spaceship takes off, and the sound design really immerses you in the experience. You'll feel the rumble of the engines and the sweep of the music in all directions. It's a great way to check your system's ability to handle various channels and effects.
Also, if you're into checking out movies, you might want to see new movies out this week. You never know what exciting films are out there that can provide an amazing surround sound experience.

Edited by Matt6VZ
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