Drive-in movie theaters poised for a comeback amid coronavirus crisis

NY Post ^ | April 20, 2020 | Alexandera Steigrad

[Paul R.]

Heh - yes, I’ve used a similar approach myself, although with greater spacing into the room. It’s sort of a takeoff on the old Bose direct-reflecting concept, but with better drivers and not such overwhelming “reflect”.

The main problem with this approach is that it can detract from center focus - which I’m admittedly a bit of a nut about. Some DIY’ers and at least 1 small mfgr. are working on this — which is as much as I can say about it...

[GreenLanternCorps]

There is one just outside Hamilton, Ohio we’ve gone to several times:

https://www.holidayautotheatre.com/

[Paul R.]

Ah, well, I’m definitely an audiophile, but not a snobbish one — none of the “you have to have $50k in your system for it to be any good” nonsense. I never had remotely that kind of money to spend, although I will say I once got a personalized demo at Thiel Audio of their CS3.7’s and, at least in that listening room of Jim Thiel’s, that was probably the purest sound I’ve experienced. Not necessarily “most impressive”, just “purest”. (The old Hill Plasmatronics speaker was probably better above 1 kHz, but not below 1 kHz.) Still, if I turn off “analysis mode”, I’d likely be happy with the Def Techs most of the time - given a good room and good source material... ...IF they don’t lose too much center image focus trading off to get that big sound. (Everyone has their preferences!)

I have a lot more complaints with source material, these days, and of course rooms & placement are usually problematic. If you sell that Impala, you might consider using a tiny fraction of the proceeds for a good acoustics tool, if you don’t have one. I use an “OmniMic” a lot myself, and have a “Woofer Tester Pro” (it’s really for Pro’s - does a heck of a lot more than testing woofers!!!). But for introductory use, the Dayton Audio iMM-6 is only $16.48 and plugs into a smart phone. If the current apps can get you down to 1/3 octave analysis, that’s likely good enough. (I’ve not looked for a good while.)

Assuming you don’t already have such, of course!

(Disclaimer: No, I am not associated w/ Dayton in any way except as a customer.)

To really enjoy a drive in movie in a car (to get back On Topic!): I agree. That system you have should be good!

[A Navy Vet]

I'm sorry if I sounded snobbish. I'm not a child of money, so it took years of real life hard work and slowly building systems to where I am now. If I had the money, I'd buy a Macintosh individual amps and tuner, but then I don't believe I could here the difference between that and my current Pioneer Elite. I had separate amps and tuner by Adcom until one of the amps died.

My point about DefTechs is their back speakers bouncing of the rear wall for depth of field, rather than width of field.

"I’d likely be happy with the Def Techs most of the time - given a good room and good source material... ...IF they don’t lose too much center image focus trading off to get that big sound."

I don't understand that comment. There is no such thing as surround sound (5.1 or 7.1) if you don't have a dedicated center speaker, which I have and only projects forward. Are you talking about stereo sources?

I do have a hand-held sound level meter for balancing the channels to my preference, but don't know what a "woofer tester" is. I doubt I could here any difference unless there is coloration which is hard to hear unless in the upper range.

Apparently, you know more than me when it comes to acoustics. Thanks for your input. BTW, MP3 sucks but is fine on a bro-box or background.