In reply to:
Anyway, I appreciate your detailed response, and I was particularly interested in your comments about THX. Are the benefits more hype than reality?
Hi Doc,
The reality is, the manufacturers have to pay a hefty loyalty to get the THX certificates with the glorious logo on the faceplate. So, the entire scheme is driven by the usual corporate economic/political/marketing motivations. Among the non-exotic-priced receivers brands, for example, Yamaha refuses to go with the THX and continues to design and make their own proprietary digital signal processor (DSP) chips for surround processing, which seem to enjoy laudatory reviews from critics and owners alike (incidentally, I do not intend to recommend for or against Yamaha). And of course, the Yamaha receivers, like most others today, will handle every digital surround format under the sun without a problem. My own Pioneer 45TX receiver happens to be THX-Select certified, but that was certainly not a factor in my purchase decision.
