09-08-2003, 06:45 AM
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#14 (permalink)
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Fucking Hostile
Location: Springford, ON, Canada
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Please note that the THX cert on any of these speaks is not the same THX as you see on high-end audio gear or in the movies.
Dan's Data has more info.
Quote:
Take, for a start, that "THX" logo plastered all over the system.
The Lucasfilm THX specification for movie and home theatre sound systems doesn't guarantee great sound - movie systems can be poorly maintained, home ones can be set up badly - but it does guarantee that the gear can manage a ton of bass, solid even sonic imaging, and very blooming high sound pressure levels, assuming the people in charge of the sound system have their act together.
Go to see The Fellowship Of The Ring in a THX-certified cinema and, when the Balrog decides to shout at someone, you will be left in no doubt whatsoever that when Morgoth corrupted Maiar into fire demons, he would appear to have spent some time with a great big bicycle pump, filling them full of very high pressure pure unadulterated Bass. With a capital B.
The Z-560 system does not have that sort of performance, and it does not have that sort of THX certification.
Instead, this system meets the "THX multimedia speaker specification", which is mentioned a few times on the THX site, but without a word anywhere on what it means, exactly. Well, not that I could find, anyway.
The multimedia standard is obviously a great deal less stringent than the other flavours of THX. THX-certified home theatre speaker systems have, according to the spec, to be able to manage flat in-room response down to a dust-raising 20Hz. Sorry, but no easy-to-carry subwoofer comes within cooee of managing that.
I would go so far as to say that it's my opinion, in the absence of any hard data from Lucasfilm saying the multimedia flavour of THX certification means anything in particular, that it's just a bunch of marketing wank.
The THX logo isn't going to make a computer speaker system sound any worse, of course, but THX certification of other gear is quite expensive, and so I presume Logitech had to pay Lucasfilm a tidy sum to get these badges on the Z-560. I hope Z-560 buyers enjoy them, therefore, because they're certainly going to pay for them.
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Link:
http://www.dansdata.com/speakersets.htm
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