Uncle Wayne...you forgot too mention Roger Waters, Syd Barrett, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason. I'd rather drink muddy water or sleep in a hollow log and listen to Kenny G than listen to Floyd.

Wayne,

The reviews of the XMC-1 illude to the fact that it's a bit challenging to set up. Reading a few of those and watching the set up videos should be helpful but you've probably already went through all of that. Hopefully you'll get things settled in soon.

Cheers,

T Cobe

P.S. I don't own any Pink Floyd either but to each their own...

Ex Machina. I have to say a very though invoking movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Not a huge surround sound movie, but worth the watch.

Roman

I was finally able to watch American Sniper this morning. An emotionally charged and powerful film. Great performance by Bradley Cooper and a well told story. Of corse, it's hard to capture the whole story in just 132 minutes and everyone always has their own ideas of what they would like to see more or less of, but in all, very well done.

Sound quality was great. This was another Atmos mix and my Aon 3s did a good job keeping up with the full frequency effects and directional sound. I found myself wishing I had more speakers to capture all of the glory. Picture quality was also solid. Accurate colors, good detail, and nothing distracting. I'd give PQ and SQ both 4/5. There may not be anything here of reference or demo quality but there was nothing that negatively impacted the movie: very solid.

I definitely recommend watching this one. Another praise worthy film by Clint Eastwood.

Cheers,

T Cobe

Thanks T Cobe, I want to watch that one, gotta find it first.
LOTS of war movies around right now, LOTS of depiction of the gruesome, horrible, life-changing/marking effects of seeing so much death, destruction, misery and meanness!!!!! I tend to think that Hollywood gets on some agenda, perhaps this is time for anti-war films that make us sick of what goes on? I don't know. I watched "Unbroken" but in Thai with subtitles, I will watch it again in English before reporting on it.
Let me run a few by you, I have been catching up a bit on my movie watching lately.
"Fury" is supremely in that category of GORE and GRUESOMENESS!!!!! A VERY odd take on Bible quoting in this movie, was pretty nasty business to me. PQ was good, SQ was quite good, DTS-HD MA 5.1 but not reference quality, not demo stuff. Recommended if you like a good war movie, one that depicts why we should not have any more of em!!!!!
"Railway Man" shows how (true story) a person can get TRULY SCREWED UP in the head by the brutality of war, and torture. Much of this story happened in Thailand and was shot here, the forced labor by the Japanese to build a railroad from S'pore to India, through Thailand and Burma. This story led to the Bridge over the River Kwai that you have all seen or heard about. This is a well worth watching film, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, but some parts are pretty dad gum hard to watch. PQ was very good and SQ DTS-HD MA 5.1 but quite good as well, especially how they used loud sounds for transitions into other places and scenes. Not reference, but quite good.
"Birdman" is a quirky film and has quirky PQ and SQ to me. IF I caught it right, this one is also DTS-HD MA 5.1 but nothing special, really a little disappointing sound wise. MOST sound except for the drums and some of the in-his-head voice comes from the center channel. The front left and right get the drums and voiceover. Good acting and writing, I really like Michael Keaton, this is sorta recommended. Artsy film, Academy award kinda stuff.
Now for the kids, "Penguins of Madagascar" is CUTE. PQ and SQ are fine, not noteworthy, quite good. Recommended if you have kids and they need something to watch this summer vacation. No redeeming values that I caught, just silly stuff. Cute.
Happy watching and listening folks,
God Bless,
Wayne

A boy goes to Sunday school class and afterwards goes home. At lunch he is asked what the learned in SS class? About how Moses got the children of Israel across the Red Sea. He got them to build pontoons and made a bridge super fast because the Egyptians were on their tails, the got across then blew up the bridge. The parents are shocked. Is that what they told you in SS class? Well, No, the boy says, but you would not have believed what they really said!
I guess the makers of "Exodus, Gods and Kings" felt the same. They did not stick with the story at all! I would not have thought that story could have been improved on, but they thought so. SQ was DTS-HD MA 7.1 and VERY good!!!! But the real thrill here was the honest to goodness 3D, the PQ was some of the best we have ever seen. There was not that much stuff flying out of the screen in here, none in a hokey way, there were locusts, etc. but the depth of field in the picture was GREAT!!!! Recommended for great pic (perhaps reference at the beginning), good sound, fair story, poor acting and poorest at sticking to the truth.
Disappointing, but I expected no better really. The next film I expected MUCH better and was more disappointed.
"Interstellar" had good PQ and the sound was DTS-HD MA 7.1 and quite good. That is all that was quite good.
This is "man made a mess of the planet but manages to pull himself up by his own bootstraps and save himself" movie. It was a little bit interesting when it looked like "they" or someone was helping us (not that we deserved helping). Then, I don't want to spoil it, but the story went rapidly downhill from there. Our man from Austin, TX can usually act very well, but Mac did not impress at all in this one. Sorry, I wanted to like it. Not recommended at all!!!!
God Bless,
Wayne