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THX certification for TOTL pre-pro's and amps.

446 views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  jaddie 
#1 ·
Is it just me or has THX certification become a rarity amongst the totl units? What happened?
Marantz and Denon dont have any (new)THX certified units. Or am I wrong? Onkyo still has THX certified products. A select few high end manufacturers have it too.
I dunno'........I regard THX certification as a kind off 'external quality control' of the original manufacturers products. I think this is a good thing.
I still think that correctly calibrated THX systems sound way better than the other competing formats. Especially in cinemas. I recently went to a cinema that had a non-THX system.....it was absolutely awful. To loud, to screetchy....awful. The cinema boasted it had the newest and most advanced digital soundsystem on the planet. Maybe it wasn't calibrated.

Am I wrong in my thinking? To loyal to THX perhaps? Any enlightenment would be awesome.
 
#2 ·
Depends on which THX version. There are some PC speakers with certain version of THX.

THX certification costs money, and generally a power amp with 100W+ per channel, all channels driven would pass. THX for decoding side adds a few modes, like re-eq, THX filters. I don't use the THX modes. I don't have THX speakers though. My av pre is THX Ultra 2

Would be interested in those with THX speakers if they prefer using THX mode, or not.
 
#3 ·
I had some old yamaha and then Onkyo 1007 that had thx select. Never could afford ultra.
Wasn't concerned about the certification, but the thx surround mode sounded amazing
compared to dolby digital. The bass was cleaner and tighter and the highs were pristine.
Just not worth pursuing that stuff now. Too limited and expensive.
 
#4 ·
THX costs money....true. But, isn't this 'good' money well spent by the manufacturers?
An amp with 100watts basically passes THX certification.....HUH?....I dont think this is true. The amp needs to pass a whole string of tests. In my book, this is a good thing.

The one thing where I think THX went in a wrong direction, was when they started certifying PC stuff. To me, this kinda' watered out the process.
 
#6 ·
THX costs money....true. But, isn't this 'good' money well spent by the manufacturers?
From the manufacturer's point of view, it's only money well spent if they can get more people to buy the product because it's certified.
An amp with 100watts basically passes THX certification.....HUH?....I dont think this is true. The amp needs to pass a whole string of tests. In my book, this is a good thing.
In fact, very few 100W amps would pass THX, except perhaps the Select level, which is actually part of what went wrong. The original Home THX specs were good, and became THX Ultra2, Select and Select2 was always silly, and created to bring more licensing to more products.
The one thing where I think THX went in a wrong direction, was when they started certifying PC stuff. To me, this kinda' watered out the process.
They watered down the brand in many ways, mostly by confusing the market as to what THX was. If they'd stayed focussed on "THX means the Best Quality - Certified", keeping it simple, it might have stuck around. But producing trailers that say, "Lets see it in THX" was really dumb. Because the company's products are certification and the resulting licensing fees, they expanded the range of products they could certify, which in turn, diluted what THX means to the point where nobody knows or cares. At one point you could have purchased a THX microphone and THX drywall. The drywall may still be a product, I think the mic went away.

THX Ultra2 products meet many goals that make a lot of sense for larger rooms, 3000cu ft, and above. And THX processing isn't specifically required by THX speakers, it's a separate function that is not always appropriate, another point of confusion created by the well-meaning but ill-informed people who create home video remasters. You could, for example, have THX Ultra2 speakers, THX Ultra2 AVR, and turn on all the THX processing functions, and it would actually be wrong, depending on the source material. If it was a movie, and not remastered for home video, all the THX processing would probably be correct. But how would you know? It's a mess, and there is no solution.

THX is still worth the money, at least at the Ultra2 level, but there's a huge knowledge gap in the market now, so manufacturers don't realize increased demand for THX, and thus don't pursue it.

Note that a lot of THX Ultra2 products, especially speakers, find their way into actual film production studios. That should tell us something.
 
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