Last night we went to go see Disney's
Maleficent at the Dolby Atmos theater in Sherman Oaks. If you haven't seen it yet, try and go. It's a fantastic film, great plot and writing. fantastic special effects and wonderful soundtrack. Not much use of the object oriented Atmos surround speakers, but it didn't matter because the story and music were compelling, and the sound mix was pristine. Only Angelina Jolie could pull of the duality in character of the sensitive and nurturing head fairy (think her roll in
The Changeling) with the deadly detachment of the evil queen (think her roll in
Mr & Mrs Smith). The story is a real twist from the original, deeply emotionally touching (think
Hugo) and completely unpredictable. It's not just a sugarry Disney remake for little kids. Well worth paying to go see it in a commercial theater before it's out on BluRay. Tonight we're going to see Edge of Tomorrow also in the Sherman Oaks Atmos theater - I'll drop a post if it's any good.
I'm also glad to hear that the upcoming consumer (Denon, Marantz, Integra, Onkyo) surround processors will have height channels for both front and rear. I already have hight speakers in front and am in the process of adding rear height speakers above the main LP driven by a separate Adcom GFA 555II amp and a SMART Circle Surround 3CX. The 3CX is a DSP that will interpolate a phantom channel from the rear/side speakers. I planned on using it as a substitute for the Atmos overhead channel until the real thing came along at a reasonable price. Watching Scott Wilkenson on Home Theater Geeks and reading Gary Reeber in Widescreen Review, I had assumed it would be years before this trickled down to the mass consumer level. I know that the $20,000 DataSat RS20i processor and the $10,000 dataSat LS10 processor are capable of Auro multiple height channels right now, but they're way above my price range and will still need a software update to process Atmos when it becomes available.
FYI - For those of you that may have purchased your tickets to
The Show Newport bundled with
LAOSAS Membership, the next meting is coming up on July 20th at The Source AV in Torrance. They will have the
MBL Extreme and
Focal Grand Utopia systems on demo if you want to hear them again or If you couldn't make the show and hear them there.
If you wanted to go just to hear the MBL's they probably won't require you to purchase a membership. However I have found being a member has been both interesting and beneficial. First, they offer a free 3 day pass to the show included with renewal each year which makes the membership free if you were planning to go to the show anyway. Second, manufacturers bring out their best gear to demonstrate at the meetings so I get to hear things that I wouldn't normally get exposed to unless I went to a dealer as a paying customer (which I really don't have the green for), Third they often have interesting speakers that are speaker designers or audio engineers, and Fourth is the free food/drink and a chance at the raffle to win very expensive high end audio gear for nothing!
Here's the email for the July meeting. Let me know if you want to join me there.
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Dear Members and Friends,
SUPER SOCIETY SNEAK PREVIEW!!
WIN A PAIR OF Gorgeous FOCAL CHORUS 716 SPEAKERS IN MAHOGANY!! MSRP $1600!
COMING SUNDAY, JULY 20, 2-5PM:
***Xtreme MBL Speaker System: WOW! WOW!
***Grande Utopia Focal Speaker System: WOW!WOW!
Juergen Reis and Jeremy Bryan, MBL Presenting
Jean Philippe Fontane, Focal Presenting
PLUS, A MEMBER of the Kevin Voecks design team will be Presenting Revel Speakers!!!
EVERY MODEL!!!
A McIntosh Reference Dealer: Everything they make is on display! Everything Including Speakers!!
An amazing EVENT for our Society!!
Please save the date! Our first time at:
*The Source AV
3035 Kashiwa St
Torrance, CA 90505
(310) 534-9900
***Did I say WOW?!
MORE: Wonderful lunch served! Incredible Focal Speaker Raffle! Delicious beverages! Plenty of Free parking!
Great FUN for all! Adult beverages served. More WOWs!
Our Host:
Jason Lord
Get ready for a truly outstanding Society event!
You must save the date!! This kind of ultimate and fantastic speaker presentation may never come around again.
Bob
Bob Levi
President
Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society
Now with over
1600
Members
8144 E Bailey Way
Anaheim, CA 92808
1-714-281-5850
WWW.LAOCAS.COM for all future events!
https://www.facebook.com/laocas for the latest Society News!
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