Think about how much we tweek our 2ch speaker set-ups. We spike um, we toe um, we tilt um. We move the damn things all over the place trying to eek out the tightest focus and the largest soundstage. Setting up good surround sound is the same, but even more complicated. You have speaker and sub placement, then you have this complicated pre-amp processor or receiver. Even if the speakers are well placed, an impropper set-up on the processor can mess everything up. Unless you have some real high-end stuff, most home theater gear is mid-fi equivalent, so don't expect to be blown away. Many movie soundtracks are poorly edited or have over produced effects. Find a good reference disc to audition with. I tweek home theater systems with reference audio discs to dial in the front speakers. About 80% of movie soundtracks are music, so if you get that right, the dialog, bullets and explosions should be pretty damn close.
Is 5.1 Really This Bad?
I've not paid much attention to multichannel, because I'm not much of a vidiot and because two speakers is all I'm likely to get (or so I've been told). But I was in a (low-end) store with a nice comfy surround-sound room today, and sat down to watch a few minutes of what I gather was The Phanton Menace. There were plenty of sound effects going on all around me, but I noticed that they had very little to do with what was going on on the screen. Even when they did, there were obvious discontinuities: A vehicle would drive off the screen to the right, and its sound would seem to disppear, then reappear in the right speaker.
Needless to say, I was less than impressed. Is this wretchedness typical of what one hears on a movie soundtrack in a home theater? Does 5.1 require a sort of suspension of disbelief, where we teach ourselves to ignore the discontinuities because the whole thing sounds cool? Or is this just a particularly bad DVD?
Speaker setup appeared questionable: The fronts were place well wide of a very wide screen, and one of the rears was partially obscured by an overstuffed leather chair.
I'd be the first to concede the inherent limitations of two-channel reproduction. But after this experience, I'm feeling rather better about those limitations.
Needless to say, I was less than impressed. Is this wretchedness typical of what one hears on a movie soundtrack in a home theater? Does 5.1 require a sort of suspension of disbelief, where we teach ourselves to ignore the discontinuities because the whole thing sounds cool? Or is this just a particularly bad DVD?
Speaker setup appeared questionable: The fronts were place well wide of a very wide screen, and one of the rears was partially obscured by an overstuffed leather chair.
I'd be the first to concede the inherent limitations of two-channel reproduction. But after this experience, I'm feeling rather better about those limitations.