THX Certified HDTVs - Useful or Just Marketing?
by Loyd Case on March 6, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
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Hardware Certification: No Panacea
In the end, you have to evaluate whether or not THX meets its stated goal of recreating the aural environment of the sound mixing room or, in the case of video, what the cinematographer intended with the film. And here’s where confusion really sets in.
The implication of buying THX certified gear is that you get that sound mixing room environment. Any home theater enthusiast will know this simply isn’t the case. All the logo implies is that the amplifier will deliver a certain signal quality. Without tuning and calibration, a THX certified receiver will sound no better than any other high quality receiver that’s not certified. And if you calibrate your speakers and amplifier to your space, does THX necessarily sound better?
Let’s go back to my own environment as an example. I’ve got a THX Ultra2 certified Onkyo TX-NR1007 A/V receiver. My speaker setup consists of a 7.1 system built around Paradigm speakers: Studio 20s (left and right), CC470 center channel, CC390 left and right surrounds and AMS-150R in-ceiling speakers for the rear surrounds. The subwoofer is a Hsu Research VTF-2. None of my speakers are THX certified. For one thing, the fronts are full range, going down to about 50Hz – below the THX recommended 80Hz crossover.
I used the Onkyo’s built-in calibration system, which automagically set up the speakers as full range (large) speakers, not as THX speakers (small, with an 80Hz crossover to the subwoofer). After the initial auto-calibration, I take a sound pressure level meter and tweak the settings a bit, so that overall volume levels are consistent throughout the room. This is particularly important to minimize bass standing waves. (Although my room is square – the worst case for creating standing bass waves, a set of stairs going up into a hallway in the rear mitigates the square shape considerably.)
Even after calibration, the speakers sound best in my environment set up as “large.” I did try setting them up to the THX spec of 80Hz crossover to the subwoofer, but the result just didn’t sound as good to my ears.
Final Thoughts
In the end, THX certification brings to the table hardware that meets a consistent, minimum set of standards built around the concept of what the mixing engineer hears in the sound booth or what the director intends visually in a film. But as we’ve seen, implementations can vary and the listening or viewing space has a tremendous impact on what you hear and see.
The implications of a THX logo are perhaps stronger than the actual end result, however. The company began life to improve the aural experience of viewing film in the home. But people listen to music in stereo, watch reality TV and are sports fans. If you’re a film buff with a large budget able to build a custom home theater, paying for THX gear and paying for professional calibration is likely worth it. For the rest of us, THX certification is like Starbuck’s coffee: it’s consistent and predictable, but not always the perfect cappuccino in every situation.
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Rankor - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
Good read on THX. I thought it applied only to sound systems considering it's the THX sound I always heard at the movie theaters.I remember when (Loyd) was writing articles in CGW.
Patrick Wolf - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
I acually think THX is much more pertinent to video than audio. Since good audio is a relative unknown to most and thus highly subjective the THX certification doesn't hold much ground.The $400 you spend on the Z-5500 THX speaker system probably does deserve certification for it's combination of sound, price, and features all rolled into one complete system. But it won't sound as good as another system that's pieced together using higher quality parts and no THX certification of any kind. Course the price is going to be a bit more.
That $400 could start you off with a kick-ass 2.0 or 2.1 system (depending on how much you want to spend on the sub) that you could eventually expand into a truly awesome 4.1 or 5.1 surround sound system that destroys the Z-5500. Example: the B2030P's and a Dayton sub.
Rankor - Monday, March 8, 2010 - link
How did you know about my Logitechs? ;)I actually have 5300z(s) running on 5 yrs now.
marraco - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
I do ever do this test: I paint the screen in black, then cut a square wite rectangle, and move it all over the screen.If the rectangle leaves a ghostly trail, the screen is bad, and blur fast moving images.
That is the most important quality factor to me, but I don't get a clue about it from Reviews. I wish that were better considered in reviews.
piasabird - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
So where is the sound system? How large of a speaker is this great vibrant sound suppose to come our and fill a large living room?Show me the speakers?
gersson - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
Took panasonic a whole year to make my THX badged TC-50G10 Plasma look even close to what they promised. A visit to avsforum will show how long THX made people look anemic (Magenta was WAY off)Kulamata - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
Very nice to see Loyd settling in so well at Anandtech. Good article/review, I've not seen anything like it anywhere else.piasabird - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
I was looking for a new TV and I might purchase a Samsung LN37C550.It has a technology called Allshare. It is suppose to be able to use Applications like an I-Phone, and share Internet TV like HULU or whatever.
http://www.devwebpro.com/samsung-shows-off-wide-ar...">http://www.devwebpro.com/samsung-shows-off-wide-ar...
This is a brand new Model.
blowfish - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
I think more attention needs to be paid to images being displayed at the correct aspect ratio. With the advent of widescreen TV's, people seem only too willing to tolerate distorted images, as well as super-saturated colours. When I watch motorcycle racing, I prefer to see round things look round, but I found that it was impossible to get an otherwise fairly decent quality Sony bravia HD TV to display things correctly. I find that far more important than getting the surround sound helicopter audio right.Ushio01 - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
The way you put it THX sounds like Feng shui for sound.