Video Asylum

Posted by John C. - Aussie (i) on October 13, 2000 at 17:02:43:

In Reply to: Intersting Home Theater situation posted by Ranj on October 13, 2000 at 13:56:46:

Hi Ranj

We have an expensive hi-res system and I figured a cheap AC3 processor would do for films etc. Not so, the sound was ghastly & unlistenable so the unit (a used Technics) went out the door very quickly. I lost $ but learnt a lesson. Much research later, on AA & elsewhere with a few email responses from owners finally let me to the other extreme, a very expensive Meridian 861. This opened my ears to not only the excellent sound on many movies (prologic as well as DD) but to CDs which I had previously labelled as harsh & generally unlistenable (using a Theta Data III into a Theta DSP IIIA).

Now there may be other good used bargains out there, but the bottom line is that processors have made giant strides in recent times and the older cheaper units should be avoided. Any DD encoded discs also have encoded pro logic which is pretty good, so my advice is to wait until an affordable quality unit emerges. There is no cheap lunch which tastes any good!!!

Peace at AA

John