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Best Sounding L/R Speakers for DVD/BD Movie Sound? > $4K/pair

If you're a vintage DVD/BD movie collector like me you're likely to have been less than thrilled by the audio quality of lots of discs in your collection. I'm especially talking about movies from the mid 1940s through the mid 90s. Of course, there are a small handful of blessed exceptions, all BD editions: “Double Indemnity” (1944); “Whirlpool” (1949); "North by Northwest" (1959); “Collector” (1965); "PJ" (1967); “Colossus: The Forbin Project” (1972); “Conversation” (1974); “Love & Death on Long Island” (1996)
 

But if you do own such titles produced between those five decades don't many sound compressed-and possibly with a somewhat noisy high end, if there is much HF response at all? Any other aspects about the sound which you often find troublesome?

So, if you have spent at least $4K or more on L/R speakers-and maybe also $1K or so on a center speaker-then on a scale of 3 to 10, with 10 being most satisfied, how do most of your oldest or most of your DVD and BD movie titles sound to you?

Please share make/model of those speakers.

ajant
ajant OP
73 posts
 

You risk really hating these movies even more with a better system as it will really highlight bad post production..

No doubt, especially with horn speakers using beryllium drivers, like these I’ll be building to play my good music recordings; see posts 15266, 15276

https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/beyond-the-ariel.100392/page-764

That’s why I’m hoping to find tower or other floor standing speakers using perhaps soft dome tweeters (of what materials?) and perhaps midrange drivers with some kind of plastic/paper amalgam that will deliver realistic sound but which are still far  from highly resolving. The other alternative I thought of was to use Pierre’s speakers with EQ like these. https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UADPultecColl--universal-audio-uad-pultec-passive-eq-plug-in-collection

or some other kind of EQ plug in. All of my sources are digital and I play DVDs and BDS on my PC’s BD drive and JRiver. Please share thoughts. .

 

ghdprentice
6,936 posts
 

I’m not really sure of the question. Yes, really old movies do not have not very good sounding sound tracks. The restoration on North by Northwest was phenomenal, both video and audio, the reason it sounds good.

 

Our home theater has B&W 805 for all five channels. They are great speakers and very faithfully reproduce whatever is on the disk. The center is the exact same speaker… except constructed as a center. As it should be since 85% of the sound in HT comes from the center. It is not just the speakers, top notch electronics are needed to get the best sound.

 

i have been noticing over the years more and more the rear channels carry real bass and volume and not just bullet sounds any more.

ajant OP
73 posts
 

They are great speakers and very faithfully reproduce whatever is on the disk.

Okay, but as I pointed out movie audio quality like the BD Edition of North by Northwest may comprise perhaps only 25% of my collection. So such speakers might disappoint more than please.

james633
1,005 posts
 

Speakers from Harman are real easy to listen to due to them having a drop of about 5db from bass to treble. They are detailed still but just an easy listen. I had a pair of 228be and while not by favorite speaker I owned they were outstanding for movies, they were clear with zero harshness. They need subs for sure. As a whole the the brand is super smooth and never harsh. Classic rock on the em was 100% enjoyable and should translate to older movies fine. 
 

used or sale 226be should be in your price range. The 208F would be a good buy too and cheap used. 
 

note the estimated in room chart toward the bottom and the even dispersion. They play nice… no oddities.  
 

https://www.erinsaudiocorner.com/loudspeakers/revel_f226be/

 

ajant OP
73 posts
 

Speakers from Harman are real easy to listen to due to them having a drop of about 5db from bass to treble. They are detailed still but just an easy listen. I had a pair of 228be and while not by favorite speaker I owned they were outstanding for movies, they were clear with zero harshness. They need subs for sure. As a whole the the brand is super smooth and never harsh. Classic rock on the em was 100% enjoyable and should translate to older movies fine.

Yes, I knew that someone visiting this thread would recommend Revel speakers for this somewhat sorry application for sub-hi-fi quality movie sound. I am especially lucky that you were a prior owner of one of that brand’s best models. https://www.revelspeakers.com/products/types/floorstanding/F228BE-.html?dwvar_F228BE-_color=Black-GLOBAL-Current&cgid=floorstanding

https://www.stereophile.com/content/revel-performa-f228be-loudspeaker-measurements

Insufficient bass from the mains is no problem; I have four Rythmik F12 subs. But I was surprised that a beryllium tweeter-known to be as resolving as ESLs-would be forgiving of less than pristine source material-like lots of movies-and deliver a very smooth sound. Is that because of the 5db dip in the HF response?

But what was it about this speaker which did not completely satisfy you? The size of the 3D sound stage, dispersion, imaging, midrange tonality, lack of air in the highs and mids, weak midbass, vocal clarity and authority, off-axis response, musical instrument timbre?

Did you find all of those desired qualities in another speaker?

BUT would it be too resolving for movie quality sound?

If no, which make/model?

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