Home Theater Cruise - Day One

[pepar]

It wasn't really that type of conference... In fact, it was quite "different". We'll try to explain more in a couple of subsequent articles. Let's just say that rather than the expected open discourse, some of the panels were led by someone with a very obvious (and misconceived, in our opinion) agenda. Made for some very interesting and lively sessions. We were so dumbfounded that we decided to wait to post our opinions and thoughts on it so that we had sufficient time to digest and put our thoughts together in a constructive manner.

I've been reading your report on the home theater cruise 2 - I'm a WSR subscriber, too - and I've concluded that Gary "One Note/Seat" Reber is a wanker. Such a blind, un-heeding and narrow-minded drive for a perfect - and solitary - one-seat home theater makes him a wanker. What other explanation could there be?

I'm surprised he gets real talent to sit on his panel.

 

[Audioholics]

Lest anyone misunderstand our perspective on this - here is Gary Reber's 2004 panel discussion on the same identical topic:

http://www.hometheatercruise.com/2004-recap-5.htm

Particularly this statement which was rehashed this year:

Today’s world of audio, unlike any previous period in time, is one full of confusion. Artists, producers, and engineers are confused; equipment manufacturers are confused; dealers are confused; and consumers are confused. The world of surround sound production is wanting for a single standard that embraces the full potential for imaging-focused or imaging-specific (the ability to perceive a sound as coming from a specific point in space) 360° “holosonic” soundfields created with at least four discrete full-range audio channels.

We completely disagree and postulate that the only person who is confused is the one with the agenda writing this nonsense. This line of thinking/reasoning also shows a complete lack of understanding here as to how the human ear functions. This position simply results in a "golden" listening seat, to the exclusion of all others. This was shown practically in the demos on the ship. There was one "prime" seat (and unfortunately it was located in a bass mode) and the rest produced distracting or overbearing results from the surrounds, or otherwise caused the soundstage to collapse. I sat exactly one seat behind the central listing position at one point and could not hear the front imaging for the surrounds were blaring into me from behind.

If there is to be one surround format or standard (which we do not believe there should be due to different listening and source material preferences), it must NOT be full range speakers surrounding a single golden seat.

It will be interesting to see how much of what transpired makes it into the 2005 recap.

 

[pepar]

Lest anyone misunderstand our perspective on this - here is Gary Reber's 2004 panel discussion on the same identical topic:

http://www.hometheatercruise.com/2004-recap-5.htm

Particularly this statement which was rehashed this year:

Today’s world of audio, unlike any previous period in time, is one full of confusion. Artists, producers, and engineers are confused; equipment manufacturers are confused; dealers are confused; and consumers are confused. The world of surround sound production is wanting for a single standard that embraces the full potential for imaging-focused or imaging-specific (the ability to perceive a sound as coming from a specific point in space) 360° “holosonic” soundfields created with at least four discrete full-range audio channels.

We completely disagree and postulate that the only person who is confused is the one with the agenda writing this nonsense. This line of thinking/reasoning also shows a complete lack of understanding here as to how the human ear functions. This position simply results in a "golden" listening seat, to the exclusion of all others. This was shown practically in the demos on the ship. There was one "prime" seat (and unfortunately it was located in a bass mode) and the rest produced distracting or overbearing results from the surrounds, or otherwise caused the soundstage to collapse. I sat exactly one seat behind the central listing position at one point and could not hear the front imaging for the surrounds were blaring into me from behind.

If there is to be one surround format or standard (which we do not believe there should be due to different listening and source material preferences), it must NOT be full range speakers surrounding a single golden seat.

It will be interesting to see how much of what transpired makes it into the 2005 recap.

I remember reading the panel transcript in WSR for the 2004 cruise and was appalled at the disrespect Mr. Reber showed to some of the panel members, especially the THX guy, John Dahl. Gary's word and phrase selection was one that was inherently hostile and belittling. I've read Gary's rantings in WSR for some time, but 2004 was the first time that I saw him exhibit the same behavior "in the wild." It's one thing to hold the opinions that he does, but for him to publicly harangue those of differing opinions is quite another. What an embarassment he is.