Rant: Why can't cinemas sort thier sound out?

mattyfez

mattyfez

mattyfez

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12 Apr 2007
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Personally, I find cinema sound systems to be pretty bad.
unbalanced, and quite unpleasent untill your ears adjust.
but I guess thats thats the price you pay for trying to fill such a large space, some aspects of the treble are just too outspoken, to the point of making me cringe and the bass is...well its punchy enough but it has no grunt in the sub bass frequencies....

Headphone sockets and vibrating seats, so you can bring your own, now thats what you want.

Just seems strange as I used to go to big techno/house events/nightclubs and ive experienced some really dynamic and commanding sound systems, also over very large spaces, what are cinemas getting so wrong?

It always makes me raise an eyebrow when I hear of a speaker set-up boasting of "home theater experience, or cinematic sound" as my self built 4.1 home system sounds a thousand times better in terms of control and range than any cinema ive been to.

It would only be classed as a budget/entry level audiophile system, the whole thing only cost about £750, and thats RRP, the components can be had much cheaper these days.

Surely a big group such as UCI or odeon can afford a few sound engineers and some decent equipment....even more so when you consider the ticket price :(
 
Only problem is most people dont care so they arnt going to bother spending money on it when they can just put it in their pockets
 
I see what you're saying but it's simply (afaik) impossible to give 100+ sitting in so many different locations optimal sound positioning and quality, also bass is quite a difficult thing to do in a large area.
 
Skyfall said:
I see what you're saying but it's simply (afaik) impossible to give 100+ sitting in so many different locations optimal sound positioning and quality, also bass is quite a difficult thing to do in a large area.
Click to expand...

Take my local Showcase cinema. It has at least 12 screens, and I know of only one that has all the speakers even working. Most have at least a surround channel missing, with some having a left or right channel missing.
 
Cineworld near me is usually spot on with its sound systems. The premier screen it has costs nearly twice as much per ticket but the sound quality is immense, especially compared to the other 11 or so screens. Cant say ive ever sat their and thought 'now that sounded ****' though!

Gone from having my seat shook my xerces persian army in 300 to mavity mines in star wars episode 2 nearly making my ears bleed lol. Good times :D
 
Some interesting points there, lol, i think the sad fact is, they dont care.

Skyfall said:
also bass is quite a difficult thing to do in a large area.
Click to expand...


True, and I guess the nightclub tactic in terms of bass is saturation, which to be honest, would work for me if the crossovers were set up properly, as a movie soundtrack I imagine is much less dynamic (or appears to be due to poor sound engineering) than a meticulously recorded dance track, it would be quite easy to isolate and boost the lower hz that are only present for very small ammounts of time in a movie.
 
Maybe i'm getting old, but a lot of places/people tend to play way too loud for the acoustics of the venue to cope with.
 
marl said:
Maybe i'm getting old, but a lot of places/people tend to play way too loud for the acoustics of the venue to cope with.
Click to expand...


exactly, the bass is so high its almost mid-range, and the treble makes your ears bleed. they are obviously thinking in terms or pure power rather than the acoustic dynamics for the given situation.
 
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