Nothin’ Beats Surround Sound

Recently I saw Rush Hour 3 – the third movie in the martial arts cops movie with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.

The movie was great, living up to the other two movies it was based on. The stunts were phenomenal, the comedy was rocking funny and the sound – whoa!

Nothing beats surround sound. The theater we were in had a very good surround sound system. I could hear bullets going off behind me, the crack of car doors as they opened, the music was booming.

Scripts make a movie good or bad, as does the acting. But once you get past all the stuff involved in the actual making of the movie, what’s left often depends on where you see the movie.

Big screen, big sound, big deal. Actually it is – if I saw this movie in a smaller theater without such a high-end surround sound system, it probably wouldn’t have been as enjoyable.

Some movies don’t require all the high-end surround sound to make them work. A romance movie, or a psychological thriller less so, and a drama – who cares if I hear the weeps of woe from the actors?

But an action movie, or a science fiction movie, or even a horror all require top notch audio systems to really be heard.

I remember seeing Jurrasic Park in the theater and then seeing it on someone’s home television years later. There was something very different between the two – even though they were both the very same movie. What was different was the audio – in the theater you get shaken up with every dinosaur’s roar. While at someone’s much smaller home system, you get a lot of bass, but not much else.

One of my co-workers loves to see movies at the drive-in. She says it is so much better being in your own car, enjoying a movie, than having to deal with complete strangers sitting next to you, or blocking your view in front.

I suppose if you have one of those high-end car stereo systems, you might get some of the cool surround sound effects. But most high-end car stereo systems were designed exclusively to give you the best quality music. In a movie there is more than music, there are natural sounds, mechanical sounds, people sounds – all sorts of sounds. From gun shots, to rain.

Car stereo systems just can’t deliver the same audio you’d get in a movie theater.

Home theater systems are getting better – and they are designed to give you movie theater quality audio, right in your living room.

Now if only I can figure out how to get 10-foot speakers through my front door. . .