Anyone else not care about AV?

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Originally posted by StuartJ:

In surround mode the ambience of the performance is surprisngly good, though I think the picture actually "fools" the brain into thinking the sound is better- turn the TV off and the sound suddenly doesn't seem so convincing as you cannot "see" what it is trying to represent.

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Have you tried playing the DVD in stereo?

Nime

Where is Alex B. when you don't need him ?

<off to the cinema>

Well, I love cinema,and to watch a great film i woulld always go out to the cinema, but it strikes me that unless you are very wealthy (and we are not) it is foolhardy to try and mix listening to music with what is normally a glorified television speaker set and a bunch of cheap mass produced amps in flash boxes.I grew up with music and like to listen when doing other stuff or on its own, and visuals would anyway distract from the glorious sounds of the music. We have a 10 year old 21inch Sony Trinitron TV which has a terrific picture and even a 'wide sound' option, which makes a little difference, but basically there is also room there for the good old brain to 'fill in' the experience (rather like the brain comes not to notice surface noise-pops on an LP). It's great to watch TV, sometimes great to turn the damned thing off, and why should a TV become somehow inevitably linked to a hifi through this wretched AV business, which is basically a commercial product relying on poor attention and inability to stop thinking enough for the fantasy and beauty of music to flow alone?It's a cliche, but it's all about reducing the height and intensity of the music experience (what our US chums call 'dumbing down')and seems completely artificial and unnecessary to me. One day, when I have the space to do it, I will put our TV in the middle of the stereo speakers and greatly enhance the value of the TV experience. it will have nothing to do with 'AV'. What entrepreneurially induced and driven CRAP!!

When I want to see a film, I go to the local cinema, where I am a member. It's licensed, has an awesome selection of films that are rarely available at the local arthouse video library, and it's just a beautiful place to be. We usually hire the private balcony, which has its own sofa.

I don't think any 'home theatre' setup is going to come close to replicating the experience, and given it's 5 minutes walk from my front door, it don't see the point in trying.



Oh, and the selection of homemade cakes is really good.

Like a lot of people here I have dabbled with AV in the past, including having cables installed in an extension.

Now I have returned to a high quality 25" B&O tv, parked between the speakers. I have also invested in a HDD/DVD recorder for ease of use, no more hunting around for video tapes.

It is hooked up to my NAIT3 which provides all the sound I need for watching films and tv.

Ultimately I feel that the media/replay method will become unimportant, provided CONNED-SUMERS can remember to be interested in quality, not just just quantity. A bit like 999 channels of crap on Sky and 5 channels of almost good tv on terrestial.

Jono
On his soapbox from....

I heard a 4000pounds plus denon kef av system in my local hi-fi shop once and didnt think much of it
i now have a cheap sony av amp and think it sounds ok for fims but wouldnt use for music

i have now disconnected it and tonight im trying pluging the phono from my dvd into my nait3 as i have a nad502 so i have the dinn -phono cable
and i have a feeling it will beat the sony hands down
also i think that a top two speaker sytem is way better the a 5.1 one
i do regret buying the sony now but then you learn by your mistakes
i do love films and books though
they help me relax from study

Jason

I'm with StuartJ here. There is a lot of interesting music available on DVD video. Often it sounds better than the typical modern "lets master it as loud as possible so our songs are the loudest sounding on fm radio" CD. It's not meant to be palyed on fm radio, so they don't need the heavy compression.

I would go so far as to say that DVD video is THE HiFi medium of our age!

I've been through 5.0 and has gone "back" to simple stereo for the AV setup, with a NAIT 2 and my old LS3/5a:s. Works quite nice with music, a bad movie doesn't get better with sounds from the rear and a good one doesn't need it.

JohanR

Music,I can listen to over and over.With movies,frequently, once you know the ending,who the real baddie was all along,etc,don't stand repeated viewings.Yeah there are "classic"movies that I can repeat view, but not that many,compared to repeat listening of music, which is not so "ending-dependant".
I recently took a friend to a well respected hi-fi/AV shop.He wanted to spend £15k on an AV system for his new designer home.He couldn't justify the upgrade from his £600 all in one system,& was frankly dissappointed at what that money gave him,compared to the improvements I had got, spending similar money on a music only system.The owner of the shop also felt that there was an upsurge in people spending on stereo,at the expense of AV systems.Each to their own,I guess.Cheers, matt

Add me to the list of people who have no interest in AV. I don't have any AV set-up, and have no plans to get one. The idea of spending money that could be spent on my stereo on extracting better sound from a TV show or movie has no appeal. Besides, 90% of the TV I do watch is sports, and I really don't need surround sound to have how a game sounds. Frankly, I don't see what all the AV excitement is about. What is disappointing is that some people will spend thousands of dollars on a surround sound system to hear sound effects in movies without ever experiencing what a really good two-channel stereo can do for music.

Mike

AV is killing music. Count me in on the Anti AV-League, it could become the new Flat Earth!

After staring at computer screens for 8 or 9 hours per day for a living, I'm glad to be able to listen to a few records without any screens in front of me (and silly little loudspeakers and subwoofers and only being able to play like Sting or Phil Collins or Kylie).

Who needs pictures with their music, they are like water in your wine.

Willem

Maybe I'm wrong but isn't AV just a logical extension of the TV generation. Most young people treat collecting DVDs as the next step in the entertainment chain and enjoy showing their favourites to long suffering visitors.
A logical start to the day is turn on the tube and have breakfast while watching the morning show. Put on the HIFI while doing household chores and watch something from the video library[with full sound effects in the evening], after the Simpsons. If you have children, the type of videos watched is mainly governed by their ages if you want to watch as a family, however on top of this the kids quite often have their own personal viewing room.
Growing up in the Wireless generation a trip to the movies was a huge event. I feel sorry for the young ones today as the real magic seems to be gone.
Showing my age and admitting to it ain't all bad.

Unfortunately there is a lot to go wrong with AV. It can take ages to get a two channel speaker set up optimised for a room. A slight change to speaker positioning can sometimes bring about a dramatic difference to the experience.
Throw in another three, five plus subwoofer or two then of course set up can be an audiopsycho’s nightmare.
I’ve been down the sony ES surround setup about 9 years ago and sold it as I was not satisfied with the music. I’m sure the technology has improved but not enough for a combination.
My theory is to have two separate systems if one has the space. My current system is for music, TV and the odd DVD is played. I love it even on crappy sources such as satellite. Watching music videos through a naim two channel is excellent.
The second system will be more skewed towards TV, DVDs etc and less serious music listening. The hardware might as well use the full capabilities of the software. I used to love the Bram Stoker’s Dracula through the sony ES system. The immersion and crap your pants experience was impressive to all my friends.

Dave

The boy who dies with the most toys wins

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Sound from my HT system is nowhere near as good as it is from my 2-channel setup. However, it's just as good as it is at the theater, which is good enough for me. When I'm watching movies, I want to be immersed in the experience, and surround sound helps to produce that effect. Of course, this is most relevent with "action" films and the like. If the movie is 2-channel, then it doesn't really make any difference.

IOW, I don't need my HT to sound as good as my 2-channel system, since sound is not the primary focus. It merely has to sound "good enough" to support the material being watched.

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... and that's the whole point really. We don't care about AV because it pretends to be realistic when it is not and it deceives people into believing 'realistic' and 'immersive' are the same thing when it doesn't really even achieve immersive.

Personally, I find the surround sound cinema experience embarassingly poor and just an irritating distraction rather than an enhancement. I love films and go to the cinema at least once a week in normal circumstances. My range of film likes is extremely varied but I have to say I have yet to see anyone jump or even be remotely interested in action sounds coming from the back or side of them.

Mike

I'd support Mike's comment by saying that sounds coming at me from the side at the cinema are a tiresome distraction more than anything else and seem more an addition for the sake of twelve year olds than anything else. I too, go to the cinema about once a week and find the sound quality to be quite poor but if the film is well made the sound would have to be extremely poor to disrupt the suspension of disbelief. What tends to disrupt the experience for me is a failure of continuity in the film.

Deane

Continuing to agree...

the best cinema experience in my neck of the woods if Stanford Film theatre in Palo Alto - Classic films complete with organ player automatically rising in front of the screen durung the interval, narrow screen and very good single channel sound.

Who else thinks that iPod is a far more significant (thankfully) trend than AV - all my freinds seem to be getting one and it enables them to have their music in the car, at home, while exercising. My children are even allowed to use theirs during their art lessons at school! Far less dubious and hopefully more significant than home theatre.