Last night, I was flipping channels and came across what I believe was the DIY channel and they were covering some home theater installations.
First, the 'expert' on the show explained some basics of HT etc. and then went on to some installations. The guy installed a power conditioner and the host of the show asked "what are the benefits of a power conditioner" and the guy explained that it acts as a power surge protector and that it also filtered out 'dirty power' and stablilized voltage. One of the things he stated was that a power conditioner filtered out any unwanted radio frequency. Do they really do that? I thought they just stablilized the voltage and also acted as a power surge protector. The host then asked "will a power conditioner make a difference in sound"? The guy replied that it depended upon the quality of the power conditioner itself and the quality of the other components as well. Then he summed it up to say that in the right situation, the difference they can make regarding sound can be night and day.
Secondly, how does one get 'unwanted radio frequency' in their home theatre system? I worked for my Dad for a while just after college and I recall the airport traffic controllers (airport was only a few miles from work) were sometimes clearly audible over the company phones. Is that an example of radio frequency interference?
Lastly, I did see something I had never heard of. There was some baseball player who had this really nice setup. The center channel was placed behind the movie screen. It was explained that the screen was specially designed to allow sound to pass through the screen without any degradation of sound or picture quality. Also, they claimed that vocals appear to come directly from the actors rather than from above or below the screen. I didn't even know that was possible.
