Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater THX - Serious, or BS?

I laught at these plastic PC speakers that are "THX" certified. Granted they cost several hundred dollars, but my 20 year old Yamaha amp combined with a pair of Axiom Mzeros sound better, and they aren't "THX" certified.

So what good is the certification, especially since it extends to AVRs, DVDs, etc?

actually i have one of those thx pc speakers that u laughed at.

thx certification with regards to multimedia speakers are nothing more than a general consensus that the speakers, amp, and subwoofer complement each other and that the set (as a whole) can address a wide frequency range with as flat a response as possible.

now - i am very sure that your yamaha and axiom duo can outdo these thx pc speakers... that isnt really much of an accomplishment since i am guessing your axiom speaks have a much larger cabinet (thus a larger surface area for a sounding board) than these puny plastic speakers.

however, take into account the fact that on one side - someone has the ability to purchase a pc speaker set that complements each other - and not just another run-of-the-mill plastic knock-offs without a proper tweeter, midrange woofer and a sub that can double as a paperweight.

however, while THX does not mean too much nowadays - especially since creative labs have bought it out from Lucas.

THX products are like certifications that the product is well-qualified, but it is by no means an statement that others arent better.

by the way, the klipsch 4.1 THX pc speakers are well worth what i paid for them - but i have since upgraded to 4 yamaha floorstanding speakers.

i am looking at axiom speakers as my next viable upgrade once my time at the university is up.

From what I've gathered it's kind of like getting a collectible certified (baseball card, coin, comic book, etc) It's simply a way for the buyer to know what they are getting. It doesn't mean it's better or worse than other products. They have a set of standards that have to be met. Some don't make much sense to me...did you know that a THX certified subwoofer isn't allowed to go below 20hz? One theory behind that ruling is that MOST subwoofer can't handle under 20hz cleanly - so they simply make the cutoff 20hz.

It doesn't take much to be receive the multimedia certification. So long as a company is willing to pay for it and they meet a minimum quality standard that is mind numbingly small in the case of computer speakers, they can get the logo and the marketing hype behind it.

While some semblance of standards are a good thing, THX is hardly that because of the required fees (which are steep). Forcing people to pay for that standard only results in those companies with the largest marketing departments being certified. The end result is that smaller, and often better firms, such as Axiom, don't have the logo and may be held in a comparison that they would otherwise win. That's a Bad Thing.

Other companies with the resources refuse to be certified because it means giving access to Lucasarts (a company that DOES do its own development) access to proprietary information. Such is the case of Yamaha's receivers and processors. They've got the best DSP technology out there and they're not about to share it with Lucas so they can't be certified.

Semi; I might be wrong but I thought the new Yamaha's had finally gone over to the "dark side'

Actually, JohnK PM'd me to point that out and indeed you're right. I'm assuming they've found they can no longer compete from a marketing perspective without that logo.

THX truly amazes me as a business model. To me, it almost seems that they are milking $$$ out of NOTHING, just using Lucas' name. Has THX actually devised anything substantive for the home theater market? Or all they do is simply to "repackage" what Dolby and others had invented and developed, and sell it under their name and logo?