anthem wrote: This morning I had a chance to see Into the Storm.

In the span of a single day, the town of Silverton is ravaged by an unprecedented onslaught of tornadoes. The entire town is at the mercy of the erratic and deadly cyclones, even as storm trackers predict the worst is yet to come. Most people seek shelter, while others run towards the vortex, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot. Told through the eyes and lenses of professional storm chasers, thrill-seeking amateurs, and courageous townspeople, "Into the Storm" throws you directly into the eye of the storm to experience Mother Nature at her most extreme.

I'll be honest, dialogue through the SCXXL just didn't cut it. I don't know if was the film or what, but there was alot of sibilance in both the male and female voice...rather upsetting. The PQ was so so, nothing to write home about. The sound of the tornadoes themselves were pretty good, but when the volume is cranked where it needs to be to experience what the people on the screen are experiencing, voices get overly edgy with way to much sibilance.

Has anyone else seen this film. It would be interesting to see if I'm the only one who feels this way.
Because of the bad center channel dialogue and how it was presented, Thumbs Down.

Hi, Anthem

I haven't seen the film and can't speak to it's SQ. What I can say is that bad SQ plays through, and maybe the better the speaker, the more the bad SQ gets voiced. I have heard some pretty bad stuff on the T1's. T2's. SCXXL... usually from streamed MP3 stuff, where all sorts of strange sounds can come through, like squeaks, harsh sounds, awful sounding voices.

I guess I can't help you on this one. But I have heard some pretty awful SQ on what I know are great speakers that are just passing through some pretty awful sound editing/processing.

Rick

Anthem,

I watched part of the movie on DirecTV but had to turn it off due to the production quality. It was so poorly done, IMO, that it wouldn't surprise me in the least if the sound editing was also horrible. There are certainly some good movies out there for critical listening. John Wick, Terminator Genisys, Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, Mad Max Fury Road, San Andreas, and Jurrasic World are some of the recent movies I've watched that were pretty good.

When I really want to evaluate dialogue, I like to use Skyfall. There is a wide variety of voices, particularly female voices, in some tricky environments. This is the movie I use to set my center channel crossover frequency. The other movie I like to use is Star Trek Darkness Falls. The opening scene offers some challenging material for center channels.

My recommendation, don't be too hard on the XXL if it sounds bad with bad material. As Rick was saying, garbage in equals garage out. Some music is downright painful to listen to, even on my T1s and that is no reflection on them. If you have the ability to play around with positioning, you may see some gains with experimenting there. The SCXL likes to breath a little and sounds best to me with the front of the speaker 24" in from the front wall. I also suspended the speaker and angled it directly to ear level with some Vibrapods and cones. I really felt that made a significant difference. Can't say for sure if it was getting the proper angle or the isolation but it helped a great deal and did not cost much to implement. The final adjustment I made was calibrating the center channel 1-2 dB above the other channels. This really helped the dialogue pop.

Sorry for rambling... I've spent a great deal of time getting my SCXL tuned in. I am very picky about dialogue as well. I feel I have it pretty well dialed in. During a recent work party at my home, another audio enthusiast commented on how good the vocals sounded in my theater setup. It's good to get that kind of feedback from someone that cares about sound quality. I'm confident you'll get that new beauty dialed in and singing sweetly!

Cheers,

T Cobe

Was it blu-ray???

Back on Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation this AM for a sound check. I really can't say enough about the sound on this film! This is certainly my new reference disc. The picture is a bit grainy, with a real film quality to it. I admit that this series and Mr. Cruise are not to everyones' liking, but this is definitely a reference film for sound. There is plenty of challenging material here for center channels. This will be my first film when I finally implement Atmos into my setup. Sorry, I'm done gushing.

Cheers,

T Cobe

WayneWilmeth wrote: Was it blu-ray???

Wayne: Yes Blu-ray...

I've been watching Terminator Genisys again...BITE ME!

I'm playing Bruce Springsteen's DVD "Live in Barcelona".. haven't played this in awhile.

brucespringsteen.net/albums/live-in-barcelona

It was recorded in 2002, and unfortunately, there isn't a Blu-ray version, so the SQ and PQ isn't quite up to a perfect Blu-ray level, but it does a great job capturing a Bruce Springsteen concert experience. Our NY son, who is a big Bruce Springsteen, E Street Band fan, probably has every CD, DVD they ever made, and has been to many of their concerts, thinks this is about the best capture of what it's like to BE at one of their concerts. The energy of the audience, the band and of course Bruce, just keeps coming at you, and the music is great.The rapport between Bruce, the band and the huge crowd is obvious. I've got Blu-ray Bruce Springsteen's also (London Calling, Live in NY), but this DVD, Live in Barcelona, is by far my favorite.

Playing it at 80 db, and loving it.

Highly recommended.

Rick