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I've got a 5.1.4 home theater setup that all together — including LG OLED TV, Elac Debut speakers, Pioneer AV Receiver, shelves, etc — cost about 2000€ (pretty

I've got a 5.1.4 home theater setup that all together — including LG OLED TV, Elac Debut speakers, Pioneer AV Receiver, shelves, etc — cost about 2000€ (pretty much everything was bought used, I had to repair several parts myself) And it turns out with a properly calibrated setup, the mix is perfectly fine. Everything sounds just as it should, music envelops you without becoming overwhelming, the dialog is easily audible and absolutely crisp. And the atmos effects actually work. For example Altered Carbon S1 made really good use of the overhead speakers. Considering how much worse the audio was with a soundbar, and how streaming has been hurting cinemas for years, I can't help but wonder if these shitty stereo mixes might be intentional.

toast0 3y ago
I've got an over the top 7.1.4 setup, and after running with the calibrated setup for a while, bumping the center speaker several notches was very helpful with hearing dialogue from all sources I've tried. Even in my 4.1 setups, I've boosted the center virtual speaker. So I'm not surprised people are having trouble with the mixes if they don't have the ability to adjust things. Personally, I haven't used soundbars, the home theater shop that put together my theater did a demo with one that had two wireless? satellites and it was actually pretty good, but most soundbars are using small drivers so it takes a lot of tech to make them sound good for mid-low frequency. Otoh, modern very thin tvs have such minimal speakers that anything else is better.
rnk 3y ago
That's great that you have a great setup. There's a bit of an issue in practice, where only a tiny bit of people have a good setup, so sound isn't great for 99.99% of people.
- kuschku 3y ago
  That's the point — even my relatively affordable (for a home theater setup) system is still far outside the price range of 99.9% of the world. So for the vast majority of people, the only way to properly listen to a movie is in cinemas. As I already touched upon earlier, I don't think that's by accident.
  - rnk 3y ago
    That's interesting, I figure it's just they don't want to spend any money to do sound settings differently for people's houses. They just don't care.

toast0 3y ago

I've got an over the top 7.1.4 setup, and after running with the calibrated setup for a while, bumping the center speaker several notches was very helpful with hearing dialogue from all sources I've tried. Even in my 4.1 setups, I've boosted the center virtual speaker. So I'm not surprised people are having trouble with the mixes if they don't have the ability to adjust things. Personally, I haven't used soundbars, the home theater shop that put together my theater did a demo with one that had two wireless? satellites and it was actually pretty good, but most soundbars are using small drivers so it takes a lot of tech to make them sound good for mid-low frequency. Otoh, modern very thin tvs have such minimal speakers that anything else is better.

rnk 3y ago

That's great that you have a great setup. There's a bit of an issue in practice, where only a tiny bit of people have a good setup, so sound isn't great for 99.99% of people.

kuschku 3y ago
That's the point — even my relatively affordable (for a home theater setup) system is still far outside the price range of 99.9% of the world. So for the vast majority of people, the only way to properly listen to a movie is in cinemas. As I already touched upon earlier, I don't think that's by accident.
- rnk 3y ago
  That's interesting, I figure it's just they don't want to spend any money to do sound settings differently for people's houses. They just don't care.