My folks were in town for father's day today. We decided to go to the annual "Parade of Homes" in Delaware, Ohio where they show off approximately 24 custom homes. These are all $450-$675,000 homes anywhere from 3700-5500 square feet. The decorating was out of this world. My wife and mother's jaws never closed the 4 hours we were there.
Every house had custom installed A/V systems. These were some of the top systems, with audio/flat screens in just about every room. I could have shot my wife for forgetting our new Canon SD400 digital camera. I planned on snapping a bunch of shots. All of these homes were on a private golf course, with beautiful paver type patios, stainless barbaque pits, waterfalls, stamped concrete driveways, triple garages, hardwood throughout, etc... The list goes on.
I really got a nice taste for the new LCD, Plasma, DLP, RPS, and Front projectors. The most beautiful were the large Pioneer Elite Plasmas. Love that shiny black surround. Anyhow, enough about screens.
The majority of the HT environments were dedicated finished basements (which are very popular in the midwest). They all had the individual leather theater seating with built in cup(beer) holders. The walls were all painted dark colors, with acoustical sound treatments.
Every home seemed to have white built in speakers in all the rooms, and 7.1 built in systems in the main "great rooms." The sound, IMO, was abysmal, out of these wall speakers. I was disappointed, to say the least.
Now as far as the HT rooms in the basements, you had everything from Paradigm towers to Electrostats. Nothing was held back as far as audio went, and all had on some type of THX or DVD-A/DTS type dvd playing. I can recall Star Wars, The Lion King, A Bugs Life, Elton John (live concert), etc... Most of these dedicated rooms sounded way above average, but what differed in all of them was the sub woofer. I made a point to look at all of them (and adjust them when I could!) I noted an extremely large Paradigm sub, a HGS Velodyne sub, a very nice Yamaha SW1500, and a Martin Logan Depth sub. They all sounded very good, but there was just something different about the ML. It literally blew everything else away in the deepest bass notes. This coming from a sub with triple 8" woofers versus the 12" and 15" monsters. Sure, this ML runs over $1700, but from what I've heard in the past, and again today - I'll judge everything against them. They are the best example of what I call a true subwoofer.
I will be visiting the SVS showroom next month, and am very anxious to compare what I've heard today (and in the past) to what they offer. I honestly hope I can come back from that trip reporting to everyone that the SVS models "sounds every bit as good as the triple driver ML's, so run out and buy them." If they even approach the sound of these ML's, I promise you I'll have one in the trunk of my Honda Pilot, whether the wife likes it or not!
