Quote Originally Posted by RGA
Yes I'm delaying as long as possible for a digital camera precisely because the prices are dropping.

As for surround...this is a taste issue - because as I said I would rather watch movies given the choice with my Audio Notes over an Energy Take 5 like system because I dislike the speakers. So while the director may intend the viewer to watch his movie in proper surround sound -- my idea of proper sound is to have good speakers to produce it. Ideally that would be 5 Audio Note speakers and 2 well integrated subs.

Basically my philosophy is does the speaker get music right - if so it will do movies right - then it's a matter of having enough of those speakers. The Energy Take 5 and all others like them that I have heard do not get music remotely right - and since most movies contain a large amount of music - most of the film's running time in fact -- then I want a speaker to produce it correctly.
Well, nothing wrong with that philosophy, however there is quite a bit of distance between a pair of $2,000 Audio Notes and a $600 Energy Take 5 system. My entire Studio 40/CC/20 setup cost less than $1,900USD, so that level of performance would actually be a more appropriate comparison. Even though I have no doubt that the Audio Notes would be very revealing with two-channel playback, they would also be unacceptable for my listening because my prerequisite for multichannel soundtracks begins with five speakers. In my listenings, the speaker pairs at the $2,000 price point were of course a step up on my setup for two-channel playback, but not by such orders of magnitude that speakers at half the price were therefore unlistenable, and to me the gain with two-channel sources was more than offset by the multichannel functionality that a five-speaker setup gives. In very much the same way that you probably would not settle for one higher model Audio Note speaker played back in monophonic rather than a pair of the lower level models that you bought, I view multichannel movie and 5.1 music playback in the same vein.

Quote Originally Posted by RGA
I would rather listen to 5 channels of Audio Notes over 2 chaneels of Audio Notes for movies no question about it. But I would also rather listen to 2 channels of Audio Note's over a surround package that to my ears butchers timbral accuracy, dynamics and a list of others to the point that it to me is unlistenable -- even if you get "more" information in the rears.
Sure, but again, there's a lot of space between a $200 starter system or a minimally acceptable surround speaker package (and the $600 Energy Take 5 is that level IMO) and something that can be purchased for about $2,000. I heard plenty of surround options around that price point, and while I had my clear preferences, there weren't too many of them that rendered music unlistenable or had major problems with timbral accuracy or dynamics.

Quote Originally Posted by RGA
George Lucas uses B&W N802s all around so that is what the director intended - not a $199.00 Wall Mart Surround sound system...I'm sure George would like you have 2 N802s to get by with. And if the current UHF #69 is remotely correct about surround then I know he'd rather have you listen to 2 N802s over a $199.00 surround package --- or even the 1k Energy Take 5. If the speakers is not identical it is not matched - period. Close perhaps.
Yes, but only one of the studios at Skywalker Sound uses B&Ws, their other dubbing stages use other monitoring equipment, so who knows what Lucas actually uses. Again, there's a huge difference between a worst case scenario like a $200 WalMart all-in-one system, and a surround package that you can piece together for the $4,000 that a pair of Nautilus 802s would cost. At $4,000, there are plenty of excellent options that anyone can go with and find some acceptable listening. Whether or not to devote all of that budget into two speakers or five is up to the listener. If multichannel sources are at all on the menu, then the playback is compromised with only two speakers, no matter how good they are, especially if you're talking about options at the $4,000 price point.

Using identical speakers all the way around is of course an ideal scenario, however for a home theater, floorstanding speakers like the 802s are not the best option for surround use because of the variety of multichannel soundtracks that exist. Dolby's guidelines specify that a surround setup that will be used for both movies and multichannel music should have the speakers elevated above ear level to diffuse the sound with those soundtracks that have more ambient effects with minimal separation mixed into the surrounds (i.e. movies that were originally released without split surrounds or that used the old five screen channels plus one surround channel setup, rather than the more modern three screen channel, two split surround channel, plus subwoofer channel setup that got introduced with Apocalypse Now in 1979). This setup provides just enough diffusion while preserving the directional cues with more aggressively mixed 5.1 soundtracks. Using bookshelf speakers as the surrounds gives you the best flexibility for positioning the surrounds since floorstanding speakers are not easy to elevate to what Dolby recommends. In most cases, mixing floorstanding speakers up front and timbre matched bookshelf speakers as surrounds works great.