Smooth, "Film Like" Treble: Happiness At Last...


While fiddling with my television and LCD projector, I had a new insight into the interconnectedness of high fidelity audio and home theatre.

According to my video test DVD and literature, most TVs -- even really good ones -- are set way too "hot" at the factory in order to stand out on a display of fifty TVs at Circuit City or something.

Adjusting my TV and projector according to the test disc results in a strangely dull picture at first which makes you wonder if the calibration material is accurate.

"Sharpness" in particular, ends up all the way down, at its LOWEST setting in contrast to my normal temptation to have it almost near it HIGHEST setting.

According to the literature, what we initially perceive as sharpness is actually distortion and turning it down results in a smoother, more film like image.

Over time, it does indeed look much better.

The relation to audio occured to me when installing two custom made tweeter attenuators for my Magneplanar Tympani ribbons. The reduction of 6 db initially seemed a bit dull, but after a short period of time, my ears seem to have adjusted and I love it!!

No more fatigue, no more brightness, bad recordings are easier to listen to, everything just sounds more natural and more musical. Perhaps the impression of slightly less "resolution" but still with wonderful detail -- just sounds better.

Could even high end manufacturers -- like Bose ?!?!? -- tweak their gear to grab your attention in a high fi store demo in ways that impede long term satisfaction at home?

Has anyone else thought about this?
cwlondon

Showing 1 response by kjg

Last year a bought a small Panasonic Tau TV for the bedroom. In the store, this set stood out as having the best overall picture of the bunch, and was reasonably inexpensive as well, so I took it. After getting home and hooking it up, I realized that the colors we *way* too hot on all channels. I fiddled with it a while (several days actually) and found that the correct color, on a scale of 0-63 (really, the maximum value is 63!), is at a setting of 4. Turning it down one more notch results in virtually no color at all, and up one makes it very hot. Given that correct color is at an extreme, its discouraging to find the controls to be so non linear.

Clearly Panasonic is addressing the store's need to demo their TV's more than they are the customer's need to watch comfortably. The set has worked well in the past year, and I've become used to the odd color, hue, and picture settings I needed to make for it to look good. Still, it irks me a bit to think that this set was not made to provide the best possible viewing experience, but rather to simply stand out on a wall of TV's.