THX Briefing

THX 1138

THX began as a movie title for one of George Lucas's earliest films, and has grown into own of the most recognizable brand names. Today, THX is responsible for guaranteeing that we are getting the best possible audio and visual experience. They may be moving in on some of our other senses, although I am not sure the world is ready for THX certified underwear. When you go to a THX movie theater and you think the sound or video was poor, you can call THX up and tell them about the problem. I'm not sure what happens next, but if some guys in black suits and sunglasses show up at the theater, you can rest easy knowing that you've done your part to better the world of audio. Basically, THX certification is a big deal. You can't just pay Lucas for this title, your products must be able to back up the specifications with real world performance.

To satiate those with extra money, THX entered the consumer market by certifying audio and video equipment. Most of the stuff that carries the THX certification can be traded for small third world countries. This is the good stuff. For those that did complement their home theaters with THX equipment, they were experiencing as good as or better than movie theater performance in their homes. I would say the experience is probably superior at home because your living room is probably free from cola-soaked floors. Anyways, owning THX equipment has been more of a dream for many of us, until now.

The new THX certification for multimedia products brings THX quality to our workstations and cubicles. Granted, this isn't the same specification as for the original THX home standard (currently THX Ultra) but it can still assure us of top-of-the-class performance.

The Evolution of THX

The original THX standard for home speakers includes something on the dispersion patterns of the speakers. This is why many of the THX speakers had a vertical driver array where the tweeter was flanked by the midrange drivers. Subwoofers were a mandatory with THX, subs that could really be felt. The surround channels for THX mandated the use of dipole speakers to ensure that a diffuse surround sound stage was being created. THX certified surround processors often rolled off the highs on THX certified software to create a more true movie experience. Most movie soundtracks are recorded with a bit of treble boost to compensate for the speakers having to fire through the perforated movie screen.

The Klipsch ProMedia v2.400's don't adhere to some of these more technical standards, but they do adhere to the most important standard of sounding great. We couldn't find too many technical details on how to qualify for the multimedia certification, but judging by how much technology is in these Klipsch speakers, I can guess that I wouldn't be able to create a THX compliant set of multimedia speakers.