Specifications

performance-oriented presentation. For the first time, the person doing the raw art, sound bites, 3D

environments, or what have you, can be assured that the effort they put into their work will be realized

right to the end because everybody's workstations, environments, and equipment are all set up to the

same consistent standards. Room acoustics, background noise, room lighting, every piece of audio and

video equipment, all must meet certain THX performance requirements.

THX has also been contracted to design Car Audio systems for Lincoln. The pieces and bits are

manufactured to THX design and spec by Ford sub-contractors. They have a full time staff in Detroit to

handle this project with several THX home office engineers working on auto projects as needed.

Looking Forward

We are assured that THX is very busy with new projects, and there are aspects of the industry we know

could use their help.

In the works is a program which makes it possible to have a home theater itself THX certified (as opposed

to just the equipment in it), which although the province of only the most wealthy, is an awfully cool

notion. If you have a spare $250,000 or so, a THX Reference theater can be yours in about 12 months.

Standard theaters should come in in the $50,000 range and will be possible in about 18 months. These

theaters require THX gear (d'uh!) and must be built to THX-approved plans and tested to meet THX

performance minimums for both audio and video. The big difference between reference and standard

will be in video requirements and sound isolation, both of which get quite expensive quite fast.

Conclusions

I would be remiss if anyone came away from this essay with the impression that Secrets endorses

everything THX does or that we feel anything non-THX is intrinsically inferior.

I do hope we've given you a better understanding of THX, enabling you to decide if THX is for you. I

cannot stress enough that it never "hurts" for a piece to be THX-certified, except that it sometime may

costs a little more. Shopping for a system "from scratch" is an excellent time to consider THX because

virtually all of the guesswork as to what will work with what and how it will work together has been

taken care of for you. At the same time, there is nothing stopping you from integrating a couple THX

pieces, the ones that make the most sense to you, into an existing system that has non-THX-Certified

components.

THX guarantees a lot of very useful features, and if you get a THX system, then simply plug everything in

and press Play, you're going to get results that are pretty close to acceptable. If you actually then

further calibrate and position speakers properly, it'll almost certainly be excellent. Buying non-THX,

most importantly, means that you have far less of an idea about what you're getting without some

homework.

- Brian Florian -

I would like the thank John Dahl of THX for his time and assistance in the writing of this article.

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