A few days ago I auditioned a couple of home cinema systems using Steven Speilbergs Close Encounters of the Third Kind as the source material. The experience has left me with more questions than answers. I chose two scenes: for the surround sound I chose the opening scene which is set in a sand storm, and to test the low frequencies I used the scene which has the alien mothership rumbling over the mountain. The systems I tested were Kef KHT1005s driven through a Denon receiver using a Sony DVD player, the second system consisted of Kef KHT2005s driven through a Yamaha receiver using a Denon DVD player. These were how the shop (Sevenoaks) had set up their demo room. Whilst the Kef 2005s played back the sand scene way better than the 1005s, the opposite was true for the mothership rumble scene.
The issue I have is how much influence the receiver, the DVD player, the interconnects and cables have on the end result of these tests. I would think a lot. If so, it seems to me that if you are auditioning only a single element of a chain then unless you can find a dealer who can offer custom configured listening tests (probably little chance with no guarantee you are going to buy from him and pre-configured demo rooms), then there is little point in auditioning equipment as what may sound great on the demo chain may sound crap on your own chain.
What's the view of others out there?
Cheers
Ade
The issue I have is how much influence the receiver, the DVD player, the interconnects and cables have on the end result of these tests. I would think a lot. If so, it seems to me that if you are auditioning only a single element of a chain then unless you can find a dealer who can offer custom configured listening tests (probably little chance with no guarantee you are going to buy from him and pre-configured demo rooms), then there is little point in auditioning equipment as what may sound great on the demo chain may sound crap on your own chain.
What's the view of others out there?
Cheers
Ade
