I’ve voiced my opinion before in criticizing the brief, so I think it is only fair to comment if I find something positive.

I think The brief lately has been excellent. The stories are quick and plentiful and they involve real world tech and no concepts. I still dislike interview episodes (Like the ones in bed with XXX), but they don’t come along very often.

The big plus is that I hear news that I do not hear elsewhere. It gets boring to hear for the 20th time that Apple released new iMacs!!

Keep up the good work :)
Sam

I just had to voice my opinion about THX. I’m an audio engineer (and not just because that’s what I do, but because I have proper formal training). As Bruce and Rich mention THX is just a (sound) quality assurance. That said, in case of the Blue mic, it’s just a marketing plot. It’s just so that the sales person at … (enter your favorite amateur music store name, ie: guitar center) can say: “it’s a THX mic and it’s going to sound awesome”.

I’m not sure how much the Yeti mic costs, but it’s probably going to be around $150. There is some pretty good technology nowadays that sounds good at low prices, but not quite that low. Generally a movie soundtrack (which THX most applies to) that is made to sound great is made with Mics and Pre-Amps (processing, recording equipment, etc.) that will run at least $2000/channel, which by the way is not THX certified.

As far as I’m concerned THX is to make sure that your viewing experience in the movie theater is as close to that of what the sound engineer mixed in the studio. The studio equipment and room acoustics are probably in the range of $15+Mil and since no movie theater would ever be able to afford that (and it would be pearls to the pigs anyways), they created the THX “standard” so that the sound quality can be guaranteed with as little money as possible.

As to your THX home equipment (ie: TiVo) they try to create the electronics that will “colour” the sound as little as possible to recreate the sound at which it was mixed. What most people fail to pay attention to is that the room in which the system is set up is an intricate part of the whole sound system and since they have no influence on that, THX means nothing. Furthermore ask any high end stereo guy (not hifi, but the kind of guys that hang out on http://www.audiogon.com/) and he will not care in the least about THX certification.

I think THX is really just watering down their status by allowing companies like blue to use the certification and thus lowering the “threshold” of sound quality. As equipment is getting better, THX should also up their standards.

And last. In the recording process, three fairly equal parts affect the sound quality: room, equipment and engineer! I’ve talked about the room and the equipment. If the person that is using the equipment is not “able” ( let’s leave it at that :-) ) your sounds will never be great. I recently bought a cheapo $22 lav mic and I can probably make that sound better than what most people can do with this Blue mic.

I hope I was not to confusing with some of my lingo.

Cheers, Hans

PS: You are using a wired lav, aren’t you? Which one is it and what do you use as a pre-amp when you are on the road? (do your “in camera” mic XLR inputs provide phantom power?)

Whats the fourth ethernet device in your home theater, AppleTV, TiVo, Xbox, ?

The THX mic is THX certified, just as is your TiVo Series3. As you mentioned it’s a quality assurance standard; nothing to do with how recordings made with it will sound on any CE device. As their web site mentions: “After rigorous lab testing, THX certification affirms the ultimate in recording and playback fidelity thanks to superior design and quality”

More about THX certification can be found at http://www.thx.com/certification/index.html.

BTW, I record GeekBrief on my TiVo to for viewing when I get bored at work…you’re always a nice break! Working from home has its advantages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast

from what i understand, its all snake oil. so use whatever mic you want and use whatever speakers sound best to you. follow your ears!