Razer Acquires THX, the Audio Pioneer That George Lucas Started (venturebeat.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Most of us know THX as the logo that comes up when we hear that zooming sound at the start of a film in a surround-sound movie theater. The company is a pioneer in audio technology, and today, gamer gear maker Razer is announcing that it has acquired the majority of THX Ltd.'s assets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Irvine, Calif.-based Razer said that it has also hired the management team and employees of THX, which George Lucas started in 1983 to develop audio-visual reproduction standards for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, game consoles, and car audio systems. It will be an interesting match with Razer, which makes laptops and peripherals for game fanatics. THX will operate as an independent startup under its own management and apart from the ongoing business of its parent company. The audio technology business will have discretion to seek agreements with other product makers, service providers and financial partners apart from Razer.

Comments

THX Used to mean something

[JBMcB]

Movie theaters that were THX certified used to be a big deal. It meant they met standards on equipment quality and maintenance. Projector bulbs were replaced - projectors were clean, you had to have decent quality screens with proper gain, and properly sized and tuned sound equipment for the theater.

Then they stopped caring. I remember seeing a movie at the only THX certified theater in the area in the late 90s. The movie was so dim half the picture was pushed to complete blackness most of the time, and one of the subwoofers was clearly shot (RATTLERATTLERATTLE)

Then came the multiple fiascos with THX certified DVDs released with screwed up matting, pulldown flags set incorrectly, and all kinds of color timing problems.

It was a good idea, marketed wrong and managed poorly.

Re: THX Used to mean something

[Dahamma]

THX wasn't even a technology, it was just a spec and certification - glorified QA with a big price tag.

The reason it's not relevant now is it basically devolved to big speakers and bass since that's all anyone noticed. Current theater effort like Dolby Atmos will provide *much* better audio quality, and still plenty of volume and rumbling bass.

So did the word "startup"...

[gweilo8888]

...but apparently we're now using it to describe companies which have been in business for three-plus decades and are simply changing ownership.

Tomlinson Holman of THX

[TigerPlish]

Tomlinson Holman, the TH in THX, left THX to co-found Audessey.

For those not in the know, the Audessey calibration system and hardware many home cinema receivers come with addresses the problems the great majority of users have: Room correction and EQ. It did to home cinema what THX did to the movie studio mixing room and movie theater.

Of course, just using Audessey is not going to be a magic bullet. You still need to have a room with good control over ringing, etc. You still have to know where to put your speakers. And you still need your speakers to be at least in the same family. But if you put in the effort, start with semi-competent hardware and maybe tweak a little what Audessey comes up with, you will have sound better than most has-been multiplexes.

In short, Tomlinson Holman has done more for movie sound in the cinema and in the home than people realize.

Re:Tomlinson Holman of THX

[TigerPlish]

The electronics portion was designed by Tom Holman. Do you think these speakers count as THX Certified?

If they don't have the THX logo, they aren't. But that doesn't mean much anymore. In the end, I think THX was a joke, applied to tiny desktop speakers.

That Holman designed the electronics in your speakers probably assure they are of higher quality, even if the THX logo isn't on them.

I read Holman joined Apple in 2011. (as per wikipedia article on Holman). I think this is a good arrangement, Apple, for as much hate as people heap on them, do care about sound quality. I bet they can take the syrupy bass-heavy Beats and make them sound good. Y'know, like AKG or Sennheiser or Koss or Grado or ... well, anyone other than Beats have for the past six or so decades.

Re: Tomlinson Holman of THX

[TigerPlish]

Tomlinson Holman Crossover (X-over)

Also Tomlinson Holman eXperiment

In any case, yes, an homage to THX1138

And for ink and paint lovers of a certain age, there's "THUD - The Audience Is Now Deaf"

Re:Tomlinson Holman of THX

[drinkypoo]

In short, Tomlinson Holman has done more for movie sound in the cinema and in the home than people realize.

Most people aren't going to blow the money on a receiver expensive enough to include the technology, so that's hardly surprising. I'll care when it's ubiquitous. We're very, very far from that, though. Color calibration equipment isn't even ubiquitous yet, and that's cheap and well-explored.

Re:Tomlinson Holman of THX

[adolf]

At least UL makes sure that it's not going to burn the house down.

Re:Tomlinson Holman of THX

[ausekilis]

I've had an Onkyo 7.1 surround unit for years that has Audessey built-in. It sound great hooked up to JBL speakers. The setup is actually very simple. You put a microphone in one of three listening areas at ear level and it calibrates all speaker gain such that those areas can hear everything. The only downside is mixing of the center channel is often lower than others, so I have to manually bring the center channel up a little bit to hear people talking.

The home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) setups can have reasonable sound too. For someone that's a pseudo-audiophile it's worth piecing your setup together.

Re:Tomlinson Holman of THX

[tlhIngan]

If they don't have the THX logo, they aren't. But that doesn't mean much anymore. In the end, I think THX was a joke, applied to tiny desktop speakers.

That Holman designed the electronics in your speakers probably assure they are of higher quality, even if the THX logo isn't on them.

I read Holman joined Apple in 2011. (as per wikipedia article on Holman). I think this is a good arrangement, Apple, for as much hate as people heap on them, do care about sound quality. I bet they can take the syrupy bass-heavy Beats and make them sound good. Y'know, like AKG or Sennheiser or Koss or Grado or ... well, anyone other than Beats have for the past six or so decades.

The problem was THX was formerly a division of LucasArts or somesuch. This was in the early days, when THX actually meant the thing met a certain level of standards. (THX is a set of standards).

Then they got spun off, and instead of designing standards, they had to actually make a profit. This lead to the proliferation of THX standards on everything, and an increase in fees. This meant most manufacturers simply gave up their THX license (I think it's around $50-100K/year), and giving that up meant the products couldn't be THX certified (at any level) because the manufacturer didn't hold membership.

And yes, it's really a shame, since having minimum performance standards meant things would be on the up and up. It's one reason I prefer IMAX to regular theatres - IMAX theatres would have minimum performance and they can't just adjust the volume arbitrarily, so you get sound that's punchy when it needs to be but not fatiguing (the regular theatres have it either too loud, or too much bass).

Ahhh.. the memories

[willoughby]

I remember the THX intro on the Terminator 2 LaserDisc. I'd crank up the volume and I could hear the DDOooooooooWWAHHHHH and my wife yelling at me all at the same time.

Creative Labs

[HannethCom]

How come there is no mention of where they bought the majority of THX from? Didn't Creative Labs buy them originally? I think that was when we started getting the computer THX certified speakers. Also THX certified theaters and movies seemed to disappear at the same time. It's too bad because THX Theaters really did sound much better, evan than Dolby DTS Theaters.

Turn it up!!!

[paranoid123]

https://youtu.be/nu0R96OZy6w