Totally Confused about home theater

Francisco, i think that matching mains, center and surrounds are far more critical when doing multi-channel music as compared to setting up a system for multi-channel video reproduction.

I would suggest keeping the systems separate in two different rooms ( if possible ). Otherwise, if you must run one system for both, concentrate on hi-fi reproduction first and video / HT reproduction strictly as more icing on the cake. Even a "decent" 2 ch system makes watching movies a lot more enjoyable than just hearing the sound come out of the TV.

As to audio / HT stores, i recently went into a local "hi-end" store that does both 2 channel and HT installations. Like anything else, they have swung quite a bit of their resources towards HT since that is where the market is going. I spent almost 2 hours in their 2nd to best HT demo room. This consisted of a $9K surround processor, several multi-channel amps, three subs, etc... All of this was supposedly professionally set up and dialed in with the appropriate test equpiment, etc... I would not doubt if the entire system with installation would be valued at WAY, WAY in excess of $50K.

Quite honestly, the sound was QUITE lacking in punch, dynamics, detail and natural timbre / harmonic overtones. Voices sounded very flat and boxy. Even the bottom end lacked "thunder". After looking at the type of speakers that they had chosen and how they had the speakers set up, i completely understood why. While others came in and marvelled at the "wondrous sound reproduction", i kept thinking that this system sucked and was a mega-dollar joke. Not only did it verify that someone going to a chain store has little hope of getting good sound out of a stereo or HT system, even those going to a mega-dollar "custom" type of installation would be hard pressed to do any better.

Go with what you know and you'll be head and shoulders above what any "HT" type of salesperson tries to shove down your throat. Sean
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Tim, this was a dedicated A/V room and set up as such. There is no excess clutter, acoustics were taken into consideration, the system was dialed in using their "in-house professional testing methods", etc...

The thing that i think REALLY killed the sound was the placement of the mains. Since they were using an overhead projector and were trying to make it look as "neat" as possible with no "clutter" on the floor, the mains, center channel and three subs were mounted in recesses on the front wall. All of the gear was built into a "closet" off to the side. The speakers and components were in turn covered with opening "hatches" or doors that were open framed with grill cloth covering them. As such, the speakers had to be tucked in somewhat behind the flat surface of the wall or they would have protruded, ruining the "clean appearance" that they were shooting for.

Besides the fact that there was NO imaging taking place (sheesh, i wonder why ??? ), the speakers that they had selected were of a mirror imaged vertical array or "D'Appolito" design. Starting from top to bottom, they had a woofer, a mid, a tweeter, a mid and then a woofer. As anyone that has used this type of design or knows anything about speaker dispersion characteristics, this type of array has very limited vertical dispersion while producing a very wide horizontal radiation pattern. The fact that they had the tweeters centered appr 2' - 3' over your head while in your seated listening position made NO sense to me at all. The mids and highs were simply beaming over your head. This is what probably accounted for the complete lack of "crispness" or "dry" and "boxy" characteristics in vocals and spoken word that i noticed.

I was told that they had to position the mains that high in order to fit a subwoofer underneath each main and provide isolation between the two different cabinets. Keep in mind that the speakers were by a well respected manufacturer and probably capable of quite good performance IF properly positioned. I didn't name any of the gear used here, as it is not the manufacturers fault that one of their dealers does not know what they are doing. As such, they should not receive "bad press" due to sales incompetence.

If i would have stood up while watching the movie clips or snippets of music, it might have sounded MUCH better. I'm sure that the person doing the "acoustic analysis" of the system probably was standing up and moving about, so it would look good during that type of test in terms of "specs". To me, it just goes to show that you can have all of the right components, know how to go through the motions of "proper testing procedures" and still screw things up due to lack of common sense. They trusted their test equipment without ever taking time to listen to what they were hearing.

Then again, the salespeople doing the demo's are always standing up, so they've probably never really noticed nor do they hear exactly what the seated customer hears. If they would have trusted their ears and used the system as an end user would, they would have known right away that this system was NOT very good. Regardless of what they spent or the brands used, it was a tremendous effort put forth that resulted in utter failure. Sean
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