THX Certified HDTVs - Useful or Just Marketing?
by Loyd Case on March 6, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
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Hardware Certification: No Panacea
In the end, you have to evaluate whether or not THX meets its stated goal of recreating the aural environment of the sound mixing room or, in the case of video, what the cinematographer intended with the film. And here’s where confusion really sets in.
The implication of buying THX certified gear is that you get that sound mixing room environment. Any home theater enthusiast will know this simply isn’t the case. All the logo implies is that the amplifier will deliver a certain signal quality. Without tuning and calibration, a THX certified receiver will sound no better than any other high quality receiver that’s not certified. And if you calibrate your speakers and amplifier to your space, does THX necessarily sound better?
Let’s go back to my own environment as an example. I’ve got a THX Ultra2 certified Onkyo TX-NR1007 A/V receiver. My speaker setup consists of a 7.1 system built around Paradigm speakers: Studio 20s (left and right), CC470 center channel, CC390 left and right surrounds and AMS-150R in-ceiling speakers for the rear surrounds. The subwoofer is a Hsu Research VTF-2. None of my speakers are THX certified. For one thing, the fronts are full range, going down to about 50Hz – below the THX recommended 80Hz crossover.
I used the Onkyo’s built-in calibration system, which automagically set up the speakers as full range (large) speakers, not as THX speakers (small, with an 80Hz crossover to the subwoofer). After the initial auto-calibration, I take a sound pressure level meter and tweak the settings a bit, so that overall volume levels are consistent throughout the room. This is particularly important to minimize bass standing waves. (Although my room is square – the worst case for creating standing bass waves, a set of stairs going up into a hallway in the rear mitigates the square shape considerably.)
Even after calibration, the speakers sound best in my environment set up as “large.” I did try setting them up to the THX spec of 80Hz crossover to the subwoofer, but the result just didn’t sound as good to my ears.
Final Thoughts
In the end, THX certification brings to the table hardware that meets a consistent, minimum set of standards built around the concept of what the mixing engineer hears in the sound booth or what the director intends visually in a film. But as we’ve seen, implementations can vary and the listening or viewing space has a tremendous impact on what you hear and see.
The implications of a THX logo are perhaps stronger than the actual end result, however. The company began life to improve the aural experience of viewing film in the home. But people listen to music in stereo, watch reality TV and are sports fans. If you’re a film buff with a large budget able to build a custom home theater, paying for THX gear and paying for professional calibration is likely worth it. For the rest of us, THX certification is like Starbuck’s coffee: it’s consistent and predictable, but not always the perfect cappuccino in every situation.
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Patrick Wolf - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
Setting your speakers to "Small" and having an 80Hz crossover is not just a THX recommendation. It's a universally accepted method for achieving proper calibration. The only time you set your speakers to "Large" is if you don't have a subwoofer. The auto-calibration on many AVR's often set this incorrectly.If your speakers do perform well at 50Hz, you can experiment with the crossover, but you need to set your speakers to "Small". However, your Studio 20's for example are actually rated ±2dB from 54Hz-22kHz. So your crossover should at least be 60Hz.
SeanFowler - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
I found that adding a subwoofer breathed new life into my Mission speakers, with the Missions set to small even though they're rated down to 40Hz.Just because speakers can handle low frequencies doesn't mean you should let them. My Missions were muddy in the midrange because the bass was swamping them.
Removing that bass from them allows them to do a far better job with the midrange. Result, no muddiness.
jkostans - Sunday, March 7, 2010 - link
THX is a waste of time in consumer products, is doesn't mean anything about quality. The audio and video fields are full of smoke and mirrors. Actual calibrated measurements are the only thing you can trust. 90% of audiophiles are idiots that like to spend money and brag about how good their $10,000 interconnects sound. Subjective results are only as good as the person doing the testing.erple2 - Monday, March 8, 2010 - link
I'd disagree with that. The highly trained ear can hear the difference in quality between the "$10,000 Interconnects", but the reality is that the vast majority of A/V snobs really aren't trained at all.The vast majority of people don't know what really does sound "good". Also, calibration is really only good to the consumer, not to the person doing the testing. In fact, you could easily argue that none of the calibration matters to anyone other than the consumer - if it doesn't look or sound good to the consumer, you're just wasting your time. Oh, and it has to actually look good, not look good because some calibration expert says so...
jkostans - Monday, March 8, 2010 - link
Just proved my point I thinkvol7ron - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
Loyd,Nice read. I'd be interested to hear more about your "room acoustics" training and possibly setups to combat those problem with small spaces, or worse, small spaces with high ceilings.
Thanks for the info, I like the breadth of Anandtech's content lately. Not just procs and video cards, but more.
vol7ron
gmallen - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
Nice explanation of THX and the lab processes behind the logo. The usual top quality from one of the best writers in the field.I consider myself a pretty average A/V buyer; I am not confused at all by the various THX standards, nor by the feature set of a particular product. THX is one thing and feature set is another. Read the literature for the models under consideration, and decide away.
As for the LCD certification, my local high-end A/V store has a fairly good viewing set-up. The side-by-side comparison of the same model with THX turned on and off shows clearly the superior picture quality of the certification mode. Even sports looks better, to these eyes.
I conclude that, for me, THX certification in both audio and video is a valuable factor in selecting new products.
DirtFace - Saturday, March 6, 2010 - link
When I think of THX I think of George Lucas. And when I think of George Lucas nowadays, the last thing on my mind is quality.erple2 - Monday, March 8, 2010 - link
Don't confuse Quality Hardware with Quality Content. The former, I think that George Lucas has done some rather impressive (positive) things with. The latter, well, I point you to the Teen Angst riddled shlock of Annakin Skywalker as portrayed by Hayden Christensen (caveat - I was over 30 when those movies came out).While the movies were terrible to experience in a language I can speak and understand, the visual and audio splendor I thought was extremely high quality. All of the mechanics of the films were excellent. The other half of my brain, however, died a little watching them.
erple2 - Monday, March 8, 2010 - link
Don't confuse Quality Hardware with Quality Content. The former, I think that George Lucas has done some rather impressive (positive) things with. The latter, well, I point you to the Teen Angst riddled shlock of Annakin Skywalker as portrayed by Hayden Christensen (caveat - I was over 30 when those movies came out).While the movies were terrible to experience in a language I can speak and understand, the visual and audio splendor I thought was extremely high quality. All of the mechanics of the films were excellent. The other half of my brain, however, died a little watching them.