Quote Originally Posted by RGA
Actually it does apply to music - Miles Davis is still Miles davies on a clock radio or a level 6 AudioNote system. The difference is that Movies are story driven not sound driven (some movies are effects and sound driven) Music is all about sound(and lyrics are there to tell a story but it's all about the sound.
No, books are story driven -- movies need both visuals and sound to be a movie. Without the audio or visual angle, movies are nothing more than screenplays or storyboards. Citizen Kane or Goodfellas would not be the same if you took out either the sound or the visuals.

Quote Originally Posted by RGA
I have heard my receiver in surround mode and many movies watched in surround mode - not at my house as of yet becuase I'm looking for suitable loudspeakers that will be easy enough to drive and which meet my basic minimum standards. Money does not grow on trees however at elast not for me - big sound small screen is hoaky which is what causes my amusement. When a person puts his cup oin atable and it throws you off your seat from the thud(apart from that being horribly recorded or a product of the systems out there) it is plausible if the guy on screen is 50 feet tall as opposed to 27 inches. The movie going experience includes the picture - that is in fact the most important part of the film.
Surround mode? As in Pro Logic or a 5.1 format?

You have the means to try surround sound out at home. Just use the digital connection so you can route the LFE channel through the mains and temporarily use your ANs as surrounds or mains.

Also, it's NOT at all implausible to go with the big sound and a 27" screen. Why? Because at home we sit a lot closer to the screen than we do at the movies. Nowadays, stadium theaters are designed with smaller screens than before (often under 20' wide), yet audiences perceives the image area as larger because the steep angle puts the majority of the seats closer to the screen than with a conventional rectangular setup.

The sound in a 5.1 setup can elevate the overall experience because the visuals are flat and two-dimensional. The sound is the only part of the experience that can envelop the audience and make them part of the scene. Doesn't matter how big or small the screen size, better sound makes for a more involving experience. I don't know why you would think that this applies to music and not to movies.

Quote Originally Posted by RGA
I'm not going to get into a debate regarding the value of home theater - if it gets you into the movie then buy it - It takes more than most of what I have heard to get me into the movie any moreso than I was into it with two channel - and none compete with the full movie going experience.
That's probably because you've yet to actually hear a properly setup 5.1 system. Don't bring up the demo room experiences again. I'll reinterate again, the vast majority of demo rooms that I've visited do not have the surround setups configured properly. And without a SPL meter, proper adjustments to the delay timing, and proper placement, it won't sound right at home either.

As far as the full movie going experience, yeah it's not the same. At home there's no loudmouth chatter, cellphones going off, speaker channels shorting out, grainy overprojected prints, focus that shifts between projectors, long lines, overpriced junk food, etc. And at home, the audio portion that I get with my system sounds better than at all but the top showcase theaters. Better imaging, better tonal balance, better dialog intelligibility, more precise directional cues, etc. The only area where my system might fall short with the audio is in the deep bass extension, and even there a lot of theaters overshoot the bass beyond what the subwoofers are capable of and distortion's audible.

Quote Originally Posted by RGA
I use the digital connection from the DVD player to the Marantz and let the Marantz also act as a DAC for the unit - simply because the DVD player is horrible for cd replay - well tha is obvious - it must be horrible if the Marantz improves it.
Or it could be that the Marantz is bad at handling analog signals. A lot of entry level receivers convert all signals to digital and reconvert them to analog, even if the signal gets played with no signal processing. Don't know if your Marantz model does this, but it is a very frequent design approach at the entry level, and it's not until you get to midlevel or higher models that you see more analog bypass features incorporated.