FR Design Goal? Which is the "best" curve?

[Soundtrackmixer]

In the bass, maybe. I doubt you'll find that in the midrange. The C weighting might have been leading you astray, there. Although I have been to some cinemas, in Montreal for example, where 115dB might have been close. When I complained I was told "The distributor makes us play it that loud, we have no choice." Yeah, right. :rolleye:

Actually, he is right. A lot of Directors now days are demanding that theaters play back their carefully crafted soundtracks at the same levels they are created at. This ensures that every macro and micro detail in the soundtrack will be fully produced.

I've also been the projectionist at film premiers where the director is in the house. They usually want it so loud the speakers bleed - it's nutz. SPL to overcome nervousness, I suppose.

Here is Hollywood, the directors have no choice with ultimate playback levels. The premiere theaters here closely follow THX/Dolby/SMPTE guide lines for playback, and are usually well tuned to those standards before a major film premieres. They usually do not go any louder than those standards require.

But most cinemas aren't that bad. In fact they seem to be getting better.

I would say based on my experience a lot better. When well tuned they are more powerful, lower in distortion, more even in frequency response and have better dispersion characteristics than even the premium THX approved loudspeakers of the late 80's and 90's. Sound quality usually varies from theater to theater dependent on whether they have been properly tuned. They even sound better IMO(at least the newer ones). They still cannot compare with the quality of a high end HT system, but let's face it - their job is to cover 100-600 seats with sound, and my reference HT system only has 20 seats. Most HT's are much smaller than mine.

 

[Pano]

Actually, he is right. A lot of Directors now days are demanding that theaters play back their carefully crafted soundtracks at the same levels they are created at.

In this particular case I think the director would have been appalled. The audience had their fingers in their ears. Really.

Here is Hollywood, the directors have no choice with ultimate playback levels.

In the hinterlands - which may be as close as the Bay Area, anything goes. The director will usually ask to "tun it up!".

I would say based on my experience a lot better.

Agreed. A least in my little corner of the world, cinema sound is decent, to rather good. In the 80s and 90s it was rather bad. I used to do Dolby and THX alignments, not many cinemas were close to spec in those days.

 

[Pano]

C levels in theaters can easily reach 115-120 dB no problem. I've measured this myself.

Just to be clear - when I took issue with this I was not disputing the measurement, just what it represents. No doubt Earl Geddes knows how to measure SPL, just that the measurement could easily have been skewed by exaggerated bass levels.

Fortunately for me none of the local cinemas are running crazy levels like this, at least not in the midrange. I don't think any cinema in the USA or Europe that I've worked in ran that high - normally. 20 years ago I remember things being much worse. Or maybe now as a deaf old man, I now enjoy the high SPLs.