Why did ROTEL stop using the THX logo on their website?

[BKSinAZ]

Does this mean that they will no longer use the THX logo on their higher end stuff? Did the quality of Rotel change?

[Mats]

Not the quality but the attitude towards THX




Left forum because sold Rotel gear

[greggz]

Maybe they are making room for the "Soundblaster Compatible" logo.

(if you were unaware, Lucas Films sold 60+% ownership in THX to Creative Labs, the PC sound card manufacturer).

On a more serious note, dont sweat the THX certification on higher end equipment. Often times the THX spec is actually below what they are capable. B&W Nautilus 802 speakers do not carry the TXH certified logo, yet the are the speakers that Lucas uses at his Skywalker Ranch studios.




Gregg

[jaakan]

THX certification is more of a selling tool than anything else.
That logo cost money to put on unit. One level of THX cost a corp $20,000 min per "N" number ( say 50 = N) of made goes to THX per year. Corp would pay THX $20K if they only made one or up to 50. The more units a Corp makes the lower the THX cost.
But it's not going to be $1 per THX unit if you make 1M units.

[Mats]

On a more serious note, dont sweat the THX certification on higher end equipment. Often times the THX spec is actually below what they are capable. B&W Nautilus 802 speakers do not carry the TXH certified logo, yet the are the speakers that Lucas uses at his Skywalker Ranch studios.

What merchandising is able to create!
In my opinion it is a big marketing gag for selling B&W products.

Do you really believe a film is mixed with these speakers?
Never! They record it with active monitors and finally it is listened on a hifi systems. Here B&W because they pay money to THX for using their produxts an beeing allowed to use the photos for their advertisement.

By the way this studio is mainly used for the score.

Do not believe everything advertisement is going to tell you.




Left forum because sold Rotel gear

[sndtowne]

I emailed B&W about the claims made in the post above. Below is their answer.

Dear Bruce:
Ah, the power and misinformation of the internet!

We do NOT pay THX or Lucasfilm to use our speakers. They selected the Nautilus 802's after months of evaluating them and several other brands of speakers. Lucasfilm chose them. We asked if we could have a picture for a series of posters that we were doing which included EMI-Abbey Road Studios and Sony Music. They said OK. I should point out here that neither of those companies got paid by us either. Perhaps, this note was posted by a competitor?

Sincerely,
Scott Rundle
B&W Loudspeakers




Bruce

[kkelson]

Interesting, as Wilson Audio promotes the fact that Skywalker Ranch uses their speakers for mixing all of their movies.

http://www.wilsonaudio.com/applications/professional/index.html

[jaakan]

Skywalker Sound uses both and other lines too.

"We are extremely proud that Skywalker Sound has chosen the Nautilus 802s for their new 5.1 recording studio"

note: They have more than one recording/mixing studio
My guess would be over 5.

Now lets get back to the question at hand...