COMPARISON, UNBIASED REVIEW ... - Gecko Home Cinema

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In over two decades of A/V experience I have come across far too many instances wherein a particular brand of audio equipment has clearly paid a disproportionate amount of money on marketing to get their brand and product well-known and recognised, than on research and development to achieve a high standard of product quality (e.g. Bose). As a consequence, there are far too many instances of a very expensive audio system which doesn’t in fact sound especially good; and hence, when compared against another brand of audio system which has superior audio quality but is in fact cheaper, represents poor value for money. The more favourable the ratio of a system’s audio quality to its cost, the better is its value for money, and consequently the higher its score for this category will be. - OVERALL SCORE: Because I consider audio quality to be of greater fundamental importance and hence carry greater weight than value for money, the overall score is calculated accordingly; namely, with a 2:1 ratio, in that the score for audio quality is doubled, then added to the score for value for money, and then the total divided by 3 to produce the audio system’s overall score. Doing so also intentionally eliminates the potential for the fiasco whereby an inexpensive audio system with mediocre sound quality achieves a higher overall score than a much more expensive audio system with outstanding sound quality but which represents worse value for money. This is often seen in A/V magazine reviews and is just plain wrong. With regards to the respective individual allocated scores, at first glance you might be of the view that some of the scores for audio quality are lower than you feel to be appropriate; however, please kindly note that when allocating marks out of a maximum available score, a baseline reference must be used in deciding exactly what score to allocate; and the baseline reference in this particular instance is the absolute in audio quality, and the scores accurately reflect this. Secondly, the difference in scores between different brands of audio equipment must be accurately and proportionately representative of the extent of the differences in audio quality; and thirdly, the maximum available score cannot by definition be exceeded. Hence, in order to meet all three of these criteria some scores have had to be scaled down accordingly. For example, let’s say ‘Brand One’ of audio equipment has been allocated and a score for audio quality of 5 out of 10, but you feel it deserves a higher score of say 8 out of 10. That’s all well and good, but say ‘Brand Two’ of audio equipment has 30% better audio quality than Brand One… what score do you give to ‘Brand Two’? The score for Brand Two should be 30% greater than the score for Brand One, but this would mean allocating a score greater than the maximum available score, which cannot be done. Hence, the only option is for the scores to be scaled down accordingly such that they all fit within the scoring range, with the highest score determining the extent of how much or little scaling down is required. Therefore, please kindly take note of this and the fact that, as a result, all the scores for audio quality are in fact accurately representative, particularly with regards to how the audio quality of each brand of equipment compares to the others. 5 There are far too many instances of a very expensive audio system which doesn’t in fact sound especially good…
AUDITIONING PROCESS: Appropriate measures were taken to allow direct comparisons and proper ranking to be carried out for all the respective brands of home cinema audio equipment; these included: 1) The volume setting of all audio systems auditioned was the same, namely <strong>Cinema</strong> Reference Levels (95 dB nominal; and up to 115 dB peak [all channels]); this was achieved and/or confirmed via usage of a high-sensitivity sound level meter. In certain instances the volume setting for a particular audio system was then subsequently increased or decreased at my request as part of my auditioning process with regards to my evaluating that particular system’s capacity for inducing ear fatigue. 2) All audio systems were auditioned sitting in the primary listening position for the respective audio system. This is a particularly important factor which is often overlooked when comparing audio systems. In order to achieve a proper comparison it is important to eliminate listening position being an influencing factor on audio quality. 3) Identical source material was used for all audio equipment auditions where possible; this included the following, specifically selected for optimally testing the various audio quality subcategories: a. Movies (Blu-Ray): i. STAR TREK VI: The Undiscovered Country – Opening Titles and First Scene (Chapter 1) This is a particularly useful segment of source material in that it comprehensively tests multiple audio quality subcategories and hence is highly effective in quickly separating the wheat from the chaff. The absolute silence throughout the studio logos, followed by the thundering opening orchestral title music, followed by a brief pause of silence, followed by a huge explosion and subsequent energy wave provides an especially effective test of an audio system’s dynamics and background noise. The energy wave’s audio sweeps from the front to the back of the room encompassing the listener in the process. This is shortly followed by the starship travelling through the shockwave with the listener being thoroughly enveloped in surround sound accordingly. This sequence is an excellent test for an audio system’s ambience and will immediately make apparent any flaws or ‘holes’ in the respective system’s surround sound listener-envelopment and room-filling capabilities. The bass and sub-bass mix for this movie is particularly fussy in that it is often lost and/or cancelled out by a sub-optimally performing audio system; hence, the opening sequence with its huge explosion and subsequent shock wave serves as an excellent measure for the clarity and accuracy of an audio system’s bass and sub-bass. The opening scene’s dialogue and a bone china cup and saucer smashing onto a steel floor also provide a good test of the clarity and accuracy of an audio system’s mid-range and treble. The crescendos of the opening orchestral title music are a good test of an audio system’s volume capability in that it is not uncommon to see these ‘break’ an audio system resulting in manifestation of distortion; Appropriate measures were this most often occurs with audio systems which are already pushed to (or past) their taken to allow direct limit when played at <strong>Cinema</strong> Reference comparisons and proper Levels. ranking to be carried out… 6
Page 1 and 2: COMPARISON, UNBIASED REVIEW & RANKI
Page 3 and 4: MY SCORING SYSTEM: When I refer to
Page 5: much headroom (if any) the particul
Page 9 and 10: vi. THOR - Destroyer Fight Sequence
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Page 25 and 26: - Score: o CONCLUSION: � When you
Page 33 and 34: Suffice to say when I arrived at th
Page 35 and 36: I used a diverse array of CD audio
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Page 41: MY OPINION - AT A GLANCE: Steinway

COMPARISON, UNBIASED REVIEW ... - Gecko Home Cinema

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