The Suspension of Disbelief
August 25, 2008
This is a subject I’ve touched on before, but given the current state of the economy (rather our collective perception of the economy) and more specifically high fuel prices eating into disposable income, its one that’s worth exploring further.
The “suspension of disbelief”, at least with regard to consumer electronics, is really just another way of describing the feeling of getting lost in a movie or CD. Getting so totally lost that you’re able to completely forget where you are and become totally immersed in the moment.
It doesn’t take a rack full of expensive equipment to pull off this feat but it certainly doesn’t hurt. For those of us without unlimited means the trick to strike the right balance between performance and cost, with the desired end-result being a system that has the ability to, you guessed it, suspend disbelief.
That last bit might have sounded a bit long winded but I wanted to be very specific about what I’m trying to describe here. In other words, when the lights are down, the sounds up and you’re focused on the screen, the style of the stand the televisions sitting on is about as important to the next two hours as last week’s losing lottery numbers.
What is important however is eliminating as many different things as possible (within reason) that get between you and immersion. This could be sibilance from a bad speaker/receiver combination, a particularly bad contrast ratio on a large screen television or front projector. It could even be something as simple as a room variable that just needs a bit of attention, think loud air vent, uncomfortable couch or sunlight hitting the screen.
This, er we need to name this type of theater, how about “Guerrilla Theater”? Whoops that’s already taken, how about down-n-dirty theaters? Yeah, that’ll work. D-N-D theaters are about the maximum bang for the buck but not necessarily the very latest bells and whistles unless they really add something to the desired effect. Again that “desired effect” would be taking you out of the world of bills, deadlines, taxes and broken alternators and plopping you right in the middle of international espionage, warring orcs and super heroes.
A few examples of D-N-D home theater equipment would be something along the lines of Onkyo’s TX-SR606 surround receiver, notable for the fact it’s one of the few receivers on the market for under $600 with True-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio support. Another would be the PS3 (for obvious reasons) and the Infocus IN81/82 front projectors and maybe something like a mid-line Samsung LCD on the flat panel end of things.
Regardless of how you define it, these entry to mid-level over-achievers have been with us for years. It’s always just been an issue of identifying them and pairing them up with other complimentary components and getting the most out of them in your particular application. I’d be interested to hear about some of the components in your systems that you’d consider a down-n-dirty, best bang for the buck bargain and any tips or tweaks you use to get the most out of them.
Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under Commentary
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Bjarki Gudjonsson
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