Do Audiophiles look down on home theaters?
Subscribe to Ask Paul Ask a Question2-channel audio aficionados are often accused of being snobs and looking down on multi-channel audio owners. Is it true? If you want to learn more, grab a copy of Paul's new book The Audiophile's Guide. https://www.amazon.com/Audiophiles-Guide-Stereo-Paul-McGowan/dp/B08STSRW49/
I’ve been an audiophile for nearly 50 years and have zero interest in home theater or even car audio for that matter.
Wasn’t multi-channel home theater audio created to better match the sound with the dominant visual perception – thus finally offering most ridiculous and over-emphasized (most “spectacular”) sound-“effects”? Even more important for video games! In contrast in the beginning stereo was synonymous with high fidelity (never found this attribute in the context of home theater). While mono could create a perception of stage depth now stereo added a second dimension (stage width) but however neglects till today the combfilter effects induced by inter-speaker crosstalk. No need to match the “stereo sound” with the visual image of an orchestra. Also music for dancing doesn’t require neither a video of the band playing nor a “stereo image”! 🙂
There’s a difference though…home cinema systems tend to be fit and forget. Audiophiles by contrast will spend days/months/years tweaking their system in the aim of getting it ‘right’. Even buying books to assist the maximum performance aim. Myself included. Perhaps I should learn the phrase ‘leave that thing alone’.
I have both. It was nearly impossible to get Audiophile 2 channel sound from a home theater processor. It’s not impossible to great home theater with the help of great 2 channel equipment which is the route I’ve chose. With the BHK preamp HT bypass and my JL Audio CR-1 it’s easy to go from HT to 2 channel. I listen to more 2 channel then home theater but when you want to watch a movie it is a sonic experience! Especially movies with the great soundtracks! Lawrence of Arabia comes to mind even the newest release of the Blues Brothers was incredible!
I, too, love HT and am probably more in the camp of those who envy those who DO have a great HT set up. However, I’ve been devoted to our beloved two-channel format for more than 50 years (since I was a teenager) and, for a number of reasons, made the conscious decision to continue that as my primary focus. Notwithstanding, a large proportion of my music library consists of soundtracks from the world of stage, cinema, televison and computer games! There is a wealth of great music composed for these media and well worth exploring, IMHO.
The problem with that is that I’m often inspired to own a video recording of the movie and find that viewing it is not as enjoyable if the soundtrack can’t be played back with good quality. Fortunately, I’ve been able to come up with a satisfactory compromise. The NAS server I use for my music library also acts as my video library on which I store the (at least blu-ray-quality) disk images (.iso files) of the movies. This allows me digitally feed (using, in my case, VLC media player) the multi-channel soundtrack into my usual two-channel audio path. I think in many cases, fortunately, the multiple left and right channels (including the LFE channel) are mixed into the primary left and right (‘stereo’) channels. This enables me to take advantage of the HD audio available on the soundtrack. (I’ve discovered in many cases the normal ‘stereo’ channel track, if the disk provides one, is of inferior quality.) At any rate, and whatever is really going on, this provides me with a very enjoyable aural experience whilst watching video recordings.
I’ve been an audiophile for 6 years (1992-1998) & an audio enthusiast for the other 37 years
& like ‘Steven’ I have absolutely no interest in HT.
I used to sell HT stuff, but it never ‘tweaked’ with me personally.
I lost interest in HT mostly because of the source recordings. Too many unnatural noises added for effect. I found the extra noises flying about to be annoying and distracting. Before giving up on HT, we enjoyed concert videos and music documentaries. But for basic TV – just the TV speakers. For movies and sports – we’re happy with L-C-R and one sub.
I don’t “look down” on HT. But it is significantly cheaper to have wonderful sound in 2 channels than in HT. Just the processor themselves are actually not to the level of 2-channel DACs. It is very hard, very expensive and/or very complicated to get similar sound quality from HT. We have a “decent” one at home plus the 2-channel and we use them for different goals. No looking down or up. Different goals.