So I've been shopping around for new speakers... and people probably think I'm nuts for buying a set of LCR's just to demo them in home and them reselling with a big loss. However after a recent experience I think I'm literally DONE with demo's anywhere except my own room. Not that it's that wonderful, I think it's good, but there are a lot of way better cinema's for sure. At least I'm following the basic principles and you can hear it, which should be the norm for commercial outlets...
So I went to listen to a M&K cinema room recently, I'm in the Western Cape, so I can't speak for how things are in other provinces.
After listening at several types of familiar content for about 30mins I call it quits. The guy was very nice and very accomodating and expected probably the opposite of what I then told him. That the system sounded quite bad and my current one was significantly better, but I could at least get an idea of what the speakers sounded like.
First, let me list the positives :
Very friendly and good service. Accomodating and pleasant experiece.
Decent sized room with good lighting.
Center speaker mounted at correct height.
All M&K speakers used for LCR and surround / ceiling.
Basic carpet.
Negatives :
Tiny screen, probably 85", maybe 100", but it looks smaller.
Projector overthrowing, just take 5 mins to center it at least.
Only single couch so you can only evaluate one small listening area.
Non AT screen with screen high and horizontal center below it - can at least do 3 identical LCR's, screen high enough that you can vertical mount and your neck will be fine, it's just a demo duration that you look a little upwards.
All gear off center to left of room - no reason.
Side LCR's high up on walls and close to screen - so way above height it should be for atmos, resulting in no vertical seperation and narrow soundstage due to narrow spacing.
All surrounds also same height and thus making the atmos useless.
Only 2 atmos speakers - why not 4, it's a long room, 6m+
Runs off integrated AVR, which is fine for those speakers, but I asked to listen to the S150's on seperates - misunderstanding I guess.
Doesn't know what room correction was used - not sure it was run to be honest.
Velodyne single 12" sub just placed randomly - seriously?
Left wall (entire wall) ONLY covered with thin FOAM "absorption", thus giving UNI-lateral absorption of only the high frequencies - skewing the whole freq spectrum and only unilateral as well - this just illustrated a total lack of interest to literally just google that most basic of room treatment materials and principles. Shocking.
FULLY reflective rear wall - same as above, NOTHING bouncing off the rear wall is good... O but there are wallpaper with pretty pictures, that makes up for it!
I could go on, but by now you get the picture. It was good equipment, but it was one of the worst sounding systems I've ever heard, and probably not 50% of what it should sound like.
Now all of this said, they are suppliers to retailers and do not sell to the public. But why bother with a demo room at all when you do it like that? Are most people impressed by the complete lack of clarity and boomy one note bloated bass with narrow soundstage and no height seperation? Or do most people just want to get they're ears blown away, if it goes loud and there's lots of bass it's epic? Am I way to critical here? I'm shopping for around 100k priced LCR's, am I asking too much? I'm just frustrated that there are such well known and easy principles to follow to set up a room to give a decent balanced sound and bring the best out of the gear - but it's just not being done. Is it a lack of knowledge (basic, especially if it's your job) or a total lack of interest? Is it just the Western Cape?
Luckily there are places that spend some time setting up their gear and has room treatment and it makes a big difference. Still I feel this is an area where there can be a lot of improvement by all commercial outlets.
Anyhow, rant over. I just thought I'd share my experience here and maybe get some sympathy, or critique, either way, feel free to discuss.
So I went to listen to a M&K cinema room recently, I'm in the Western Cape, so I can't speak for how things are in other provinces.
After listening at several types of familiar content for about 30mins I call it quits. The guy was very nice and very accomodating and expected probably the opposite of what I then told him. That the system sounded quite bad and my current one was significantly better, but I could at least get an idea of what the speakers sounded like.
First, let me list the positives :
Very friendly and good service. Accomodating and pleasant experiece.
Decent sized room with good lighting.
Center speaker mounted at correct height.
All M&K speakers used for LCR and surround / ceiling.
Basic carpet.
Negatives :
Tiny screen, probably 85", maybe 100", but it looks smaller.
Projector overthrowing, just take 5 mins to center it at least.
Only single couch so you can only evaluate one small listening area.
Non AT screen with screen high and horizontal center below it - can at least do 3 identical LCR's, screen high enough that you can vertical mount and your neck will be fine, it's just a demo duration that you look a little upwards.
All gear off center to left of room - no reason.
Side LCR's high up on walls and close to screen - so way above height it should be for atmos, resulting in no vertical seperation and narrow soundstage due to narrow spacing.
All surrounds also same height and thus making the atmos useless.
Only 2 atmos speakers - why not 4, it's a long room, 6m+
Runs off integrated AVR, which is fine for those speakers, but I asked to listen to the S150's on seperates - misunderstanding I guess.
Doesn't know what room correction was used - not sure it was run to be honest.
Velodyne single 12" sub just placed randomly - seriously?
Left wall (entire wall) ONLY covered with thin FOAM "absorption", thus giving UNI-lateral absorption of only the high frequencies - skewing the whole freq spectrum and only unilateral as well - this just illustrated a total lack of interest to literally just google that most basic of room treatment materials and principles. Shocking.
FULLY reflective rear wall - same as above, NOTHING bouncing off the rear wall is good... O but there are wallpaper with pretty pictures, that makes up for it!
I could go on, but by now you get the picture. It was good equipment, but it was one of the worst sounding systems I've ever heard, and probably not 50% of what it should sound like.
Now all of this said, they are suppliers to retailers and do not sell to the public. But why bother with a demo room at all when you do it like that? Are most people impressed by the complete lack of clarity and boomy one note bloated bass with narrow soundstage and no height seperation? Or do most people just want to get they're ears blown away, if it goes loud and there's lots of bass it's epic? Am I way to critical here? I'm shopping for around 100k priced LCR's, am I asking too much? I'm just frustrated that there are such well known and easy principles to follow to set up a room to give a decent balanced sound and bring the best out of the gear - but it's just not being done. Is it a lack of knowledge (basic, especially if it's your job) or a total lack of interest? Is it just the Western Cape?
Luckily there are places that spend some time setting up their gear and has room treatment and it makes a big difference. Still I feel this is an area where there can be a lot of improvement by all commercial outlets.
Anyhow, rant over. I just thought I'd share my experience here and maybe get some sympathy, or critique, either way, feel free to discuss.
