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Pre/pros in THX small in number big in price
What is your opinion of this conversation from another forum? Preamps capable of processing surround-sound are usually called preamp/processors or pre/pros for short. Most of the mass-market home entertainment manufacturers seem to have dropped THX certification, presumably because of the extra expense. As a result, in many cases you'll have to pay a substantial premium, both because of the certification expense itself and because most of the items are manufactured in relatively small quantities and thus have substantially higher per-unit overhead costs. The THX web site can be used to generate lists of THX certified equipment in appropriate categories. Unfortunately, there's no indication of whether or not a device is currently in production. Many of them are not, and some current models which do have THX certification aren't listed. Floyd
Re: Pre/pros in THX small in number big in price
It sounds like THX is out of the range of the typical consumer, due to the low production numbers. Most people can't pay the cost, although if companies produced more THX-certified equipment, at least that aspect of the cost would drop. It also sounds like the THX website itself is particularly unhelpful.
I personally could care less about "certification" from THX, because I don't find it relevant. I'm looking for a whole lot more where quality is concerned than what they require for certification. For example, even their highest certification levels are pretty vague about directivity, so a lot of loudspeakers with a hodge-podge of polars are "Ultra 2 Certified". Another example is that until very recently, there was no flanking sub capability (or any other kind of multisub, for that matter) available in any of the home theater processors. So that made them incapable of giving the best quality sound, in my opinion. I'm not talking about the primitive "small" and "large" settings to provide crude crossover settings for use with a subwoofer. That's not enough, and is actually wrong, according to most experts familiar with multisub techniques. You don't "crossover" a sub, you blend it with the mains to provide modal smoothing. But in the last few months, I've seen at least one manufacturer that provides flanking sub support, similar to what was described in the "flanking sub procesor" threads below. I imagine many more mainstream products will soon start to provide this kind of support for flanking and distributed multisubs. Flanking subs with small mains Crazy idea for a flanking sub processor
I'm in agreement with you, because when I set my Pioneer elite to THX, I have no control over any bass or treble. When it sets itself up via the microphone, it will show you all of the adjustments it has made in great detail, but you can't adjust any of them. About all I can change is large or small for the speakers and increase or decrease the volume for each speaker. When I set the receiver to standard, it allows course bass/treble adjustments, but again I have no control over any frequency boost or subtraction for any speaker. What would be your favorite brands for units with sound processing regardless of THX certification? Floyd