| Cinema Cynergy December 2002
Reference DVDs
to Showcase and Evaluate Your System
When most people demonstrate a multichannel home-theater
system, they naturally reach for a DVD movie with plenty of explosions and other deafening
sound effects. They do this to impress their audience with the sheer quantity of sound
that a capable home theater can produce. While this is the most obvious and the most
immediately gratifying manner in which to show off a system, there is more to multichannel
sound than just dynamic range and the ability to fill a room with enough deep bass to
rattle the windows.
A well-recorded soundtrack when played back on a
high-quality system should convey a sense of depth and space that immerses the listener in
an involving surround-sound experience. There should also be plenty of detail in low-level
sound effects that should be easily discernible even when they are buried within a complex
mix of other elements in the soundtrack. The timbre or distinctive tone of voices, musical
instruments, and sound effects should be natural and realistic without being exaggerated
or otherwise forced. And when the volume level does increase, the system must still be
able to convey the large scale of sound that movie soundtracks possess without becoming
compressed or distorted.
I have compiled a list of a few of my favorite demo discs
and provided a few examples of passages from each. They are described in more detail than
is usually possible in an equipment review. You might notice that all are encoded in DTS.
While there are a lot of good-sounding DVD movies encoded with Dolby Digital, I generally
find that the DTS tracks sound just a little bit better in comparison. For some reason,
most of my favorite demo discs just happen to be encoded in DTS.
While the four-disc set of The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring (Special Extended Edition) certainly has its share of
overpowering sound effects, it also has a coherent 360-degree soundfield that consistently
places the listener in an enveloping and immersive auditory experience. In chapter 36,
"The Bridge of Khazad-dûm," there is thunderous bass from the footsteps of the
Balrog and the crashing pillars, but the dialogue is always intelligible. Listen to how
well the music integrates in every channel to bind together all of the elements in the
mix. At the end of that scene the audio changes in character to reflect the change in mood
by mixing music with the muted sound of arrows and following with just mournful music to
heighten the sense of tragedy. The entire film (all 208 minutes of it!) exhibits this sort
of well-crafted and atmospheric sound design.
 In the DTS version of The Haunting,
the bass contained in the soundtrack will test the accuracy and low-frequency extension of
your subwoofer by providing truly subsonic sound effects. Chapter 10, "Creaking
Pipes," has some of the lowest frequencies of any movie soundtrack that I have come
across. There are crashes and rumbling effects during this scene, but when Catherine
Zeta-Jones’s character first notices how cold it is and sees her breath, there is an
incredibly powerful and sustained bass tone. Lesser subwoofers may not be able reproduce
it at all, or if they do attempt it, they will do so with high levels of distortion as it
tends to overload subwoofers that do not have the necessary power-handling capability.
The Haunting also has some incredibly subtle sound
design that seems to make Hill House come to life. When the character Nell first arrives
there, the interior of the house sounds extremely expansive and has low-level ambient
sounds that emanate from all around the listener. The creaking noises and the ominous
rumblings are very creepy, and you can almost feel the air as it intermittently pulses
through the house with a chuffing sound that makes it seem as if the entire house is
breathing. As Mrs. Dudley shows Nell to her room, her voice seems to be in a large
reverberant space and the sound tracks her perfectly as she moves across the screen and
then follows her off.
Another DVD with a fabulous soundtrack is Blade II,
which incorporates well-recorded techno music with aggressive sound effects and a very
natural three-dimensional soundfield. Chapters 2 and 3, "Bike the Bullet" and
"Blood Lines," have all the hallmarks of classic demo scenes. There is loud
gunfire, swirling surround effects, and a frenetic techno beat that holds everything
together and culminates in some visceral pulse-pounding hand-to-hand combat. A more
challenging series of scenes is contained in chapter 10, "House of Pain." The
bass from the pulsating dance music is a test for your subwoofer, which should make it
sound as though you are actually on the dance floor in a very loud dance club. As
the scene changes and moves away from the dance floor into the depths of the building, the
quality of the bass also changes to an indistinct droning as if it is originating from
another room. The overall sound shifts smoothly as the locations move from inside the
building to the interior of a van, and then outdoors in driving rain during a
thunderstorm. Listen for subtle directional cues in the surrounds as well as low-level
ambiance as the characters move through the rooms. This provides a great sense of
spaciousness.
 One DVD that you might not think would
make a good reference disc is the Jackie Chan comedy Rush Hour 2, but it actually
possesses a surprisingly natural and coherent soundtrack. During the opening credits there
is good energy from the orchestral score, even in the surround channels. The drums are so
tight and well defined that you can sense the tautness of their skins. The explosion at
the end of the credits is not extremely loud, but it will test the capability of your
center-channel to reproduce it cleanly without distorting. The scene then changes abruptly
to Jackie and Chris Tucker singing along to a Beach Boys song, which is a great mix of the
recorded music and their singing. Music in several scenes is integrated seamlessly to
provide atmosphere and effect such as in chapter 2, "Triad Club," where Tucker
sings karaoke to Michael Jackson’s "Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get
Enough." The music is at times very prominent in the mix with good fidelity, and then
recedes into the background as Tucker’s singing and other elements of the mix become
more prominent.
Although there are many live concert videos and
compilations of music videos available on DVD, I would consider very few of them to be of
reference quality, sonically. One of the first great-sounding concert DVDs, Eagles:
Hell Freezes Over, is still also one of the best. On the crowd-pleasing "Hotel
California" the kick-drum thwacks are massive and will sound almost overblown on
systems that are able to reproduce this prodigious amount of bass. Don Felder’s
acoustic guitar floats in midair just inside the right speaker and is well defined and
incredibly detailed, while the guitar of Joe Walsh is more reverberant and images somewhat
diffusely more towards left center. Don Henley’s voice is also somewhat nasal on this
cut and on many of the other tracks as well. His vocals are cleaner and more immediate on
"New York Minute," however, and the orchestra is mixed aggressively in the
surrounds; the trumpet solo has good bite, but is not particularly localizable. The
synthesized bells at the beginning of this track are crystal clear and shimmering, which
will give you goose bumps on a system that is sufficiently neutral and transparent.
 The recent Diana Krall Live In
Paris DVD is another excellent-sounding concert video that features an artist
who also happens to be an audiophile favorite. She is backed-up by two jazz veterans: John
Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. The orchestral arrangements of the bossa novas are a bit syrupy
and uninspired, but are lushly recorded and easy to listen to. For something a little
livelier, check out "Deed I Do." The piano sparkles with good timbre on
Krall’s solo, which really swings. Although all of the instruments sound quite
natural, they do not image particularly precisely save for Anthony Wilson’s guitar.
John Clayton’s bass is rich and powerful, but just a little loose. The last song of
the concert, "A Case of You," is a simple arrangement consisting of only
Krall’s vocals accompanied by the piano, but it will test the quality of your
center-channel. Even though her voice is mixed partially into the left and right channels
for good imaging and depth, the center-channel must be up to the task of reproducing her
forceful yet soulful vocals, which convey all of the passion and feeling of her
performance.
Finally, for something just a little bit different, try the
DTS version of Boyz II Men’s II CD. The entire album features an aggressive
surround mix of R&B-inspired songs with excellent fidelity, but the a cappella
version of the Beatles song "Yesterday" is absolutely killer. This cut
will sound good on just about any system, but when the levels and delays are properly set
and the imaging is just right from all of the speakers, the vocals will virtually dance
around the room with a smooth, lyrical quality that is quite thrilling. It is also a great
test for bass integration. If the subwoofer is blending properly with the rest of the
speakers, the bass vocals will image precisely in the front soundstage, otherwise they
will be more diffuse and less localizable. If your system can get this track to image
precisely from all directions, then it should have no problem with any other multichannel
music or movie soundtrack.
These are just a few of the discs that I routinely use to
evaluate multichannel systems because of their wonderful sound design and exceptional
fidelity. You might consider purchasing some of these discs if you don’t already have
them. Or if you do, listen to them again to see if you can hear something of what I
described, or perhaps even more if you have a truly reference-quality system.
...Roger Kanno
roger@hometheatersound.com |
