belial Posted November 27, 2001 Share Posted November 27, 2001 I just got a new receiver and want to put it through its paces. I notice that sound quality seems to vary quite a bit from movie to movie, and it is hard to tell if it is my setup or the movie... For instance, on Toy Story and Toy Story 2 the sound is AMAZING, with bass and vocals extremely well defined (now I know why my local Klipsch dealer used it to demo the speaker. But on some other titles I find that some vocals appear slightly distorted at times and the bass is weak... Question 1: How to tell which is my system and which is a poor recording? It is hard to believe that a recent 5.1 soundtrack could be poorly recorded in this day and age. Question 2: Which movies would you use to test a system out? Thanks for all responses! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eq_shadimar Posted November 27, 2001 Share Posted November 27, 2001 Here are some good demo DVD's that I use. Star Wars Ep1 Saving Private Ryan The 5th Element Toy Story 2 U-571 The Eagles Hell Freezes Over Taking Heads Stop Making Sense ------------------ ...wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world... My Home Theater Page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted November 27, 2001 Share Posted November 27, 2001 here is a link to this topic in the DVD's, Movie's, Music News forum. http://216.37.9.58/ubb/Forum21/HTML/000054.html ------------------ -justin I am an amateur, if it is professional; ProMedia help you want email Amy or call her @ 1-888-554-5665 Klipsch Home Audio help you want, email support@klipsch.com or call @ 1-800-KLIPSCH RA# Fax Number=317-860-9140 / Parts Department Fax Number=317-860-9150 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundog Posted November 27, 2001 Share Posted November 27, 2001 What does your system consist of? Are the speakers all tonally matched? ------------------ Soundog's HT Systems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belial Posted November 27, 2001 Author Share Posted November 27, 2001 I have the RB-5s, with an RC-3 center, a KSW12 woofer, and, uh, el-cheapo Radio Shack towers (to be replaced!) as surrounds, all of which I am running off my new Onkyo 595 receiver (I'll offer a review of it soon...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted November 27, 2001 Share Posted November 27, 2001 I'd say you have a very good system. Room acoustics, speaker placement, and the like may come into play. But that is not the issue of the analysis. It is bit unrealistic to believe that any reproduction system will make "every" recording sound excellent. In fact there is good reason to believe that the better reproduction systems just make shortcomings of the recordings more obvious. It is also, I'd think, unrealistic to believe that every movie is mixed with foresight to sound good in your living room, or mine. The overall problem is recognized in Hollywood, but please consider the number of issues. The movie action is often recorded on a soundstage. Sometimes this has to portray a larger room, or smaller room, or outdoors. Then this has to mixed to sound realistic in a theater. Theaters of of varying size. Then when distributed to home systems, it is supposed to sound good in a room which is very much smaller than the sound stage. It is a wonder that anything works at all. I note that the movies having sound tracks you like, Toy Story, are entirely computer generated. So there the sound is processed a lot too. Few sounds in the movies are "real". The bottom line, IMHO, is that it is not possible to critque the virtures of your audio system by expecting all recordings to sound good, or the same. If they are different, who is to say what is "best"? Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundog Posted November 27, 2001 Share Posted November 27, 2001 I agree with Gil - i don't think it's your system that's at fault. Some 5.1 movies are rather so-so remixes of films originally produced in stereo. ------------------ Soundog's HT Systems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belial Posted November 28, 2001 Author Share Posted November 28, 2001 Thanks to all of you for responding! I should have done a search for this topic in the "DVD" section, but to be honest I didn't even realize there was one--I pretty much only visit the home theater forum. Since movies are mixed for theaters and not living rooms--what do you think of the Re-EQ function (those of you who have used this feature, I mean.) It is supposed to take the edge or brightness out of the sound to compensate for the fact it was designed for a much larger environment... To be honest, so far I can't tell the difference... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boa12 Posted November 28, 2001 Share Posted November 28, 2001 bel, only thx certified receivers officially have re-eq (lucas' trademark) but others like my marantz might have something similar like HT-EQ. may not be exact but around 7khz on up it drops the db to take out the possible brightness from motion pic soundtracks mixed in to go through screens & accomodate big theaters w/ many seats & people. i haven't found many flicks it makes a real positive dif on either from dvd or dig cable tv. then again my hearing's not the best. ------------------ My Home Systems Page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Robinson Posted November 28, 2001 Share Posted November 28, 2001 Believe it or not, "Prince of Egypt" is a GREAT soundtrack that will really put your system through the paces ... ------------------ If you don't like what is coming out, you wouldn't like what is going in." -PWK- --------------------- Klipsch 1968 ALK Cornwall "II"s (LF/RF) ALK Belle Klipsch (Center) Klipsch Heresy (RR/LR) Klipsch KSW-12 sub Sonic Frontiers Anthem AMP1 (driving Cornwalls) Sonic Frontiers Anthem AMP1 (driving Heresy's) Denon AVR-4800 Toshiba SD-3109 DVD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShapeShifter Posted November 28, 2001 Share Posted November 28, 2001 The "Home Theater Demo" Disc will allow you to demonstrate your systems full audio and video capabilities. The disc also serves as an diagnostic tool. Got mine from http://www.audioadvisor.com for 19.98 plus shipping. ------------------ "KLIPSCH IS MUSIC"f> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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