West of Scotland Hi-Fi Club

2008-2009 season

We visited Alan Wills, the Director of "Alan James Hi-Fi" for a DVD and Dolby 5.1 demonstration.   The turnout was fairly good and Alan sat us all down in front of a huge wide screen 32" JVC Television.  He played us a DVD sample disc which demonstrated  the individual channels in 5.1 Dolby, totally unlike the Dolby Pro-logic surround system which uses a mono surround channel in lieu of the discrete stereo surround of 5.1.

Wharfedale™ "Loudpanels" flat speakers attached to the wall were in use for the demonstration and we all thought they sounded fairly good for the demo, but in Hi-Fi terms a bit too peaky in the middle, no bass and lacking real top!  They were accompanied by their own sub-woofer which complemented them fairly well.

The DVD picture quality was very good, considering it was only a Composite Pal feed into the TV instead of an RGB Scart. 

The .1 in Dolby 5.1 of course relates to the 100hz subwoofer , and this resembled a small cannon sited on the floor, which at £300 was a mere snip. Unfortunately the cost of the complete system was out with the pockets of most of us, since the DVD player does not come with the 5.1 decoder. It must be purchased separately!  The TV was £1800, the player around £700, and the Dolby decoder a few hundred more!! Plus the 5 Speakers required for the system to perform and of course you own personal cannon!  Never mind, one can dream of such things, and I would like to thank Alan for the excellent demonstration.

The adjacent Curry house (The Bombay Blues) was also much better than I had expected, and the club (me) gives it 3 stars.  Any objections please e-mail me now!

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Copyright Alistair Biggar
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Last updated: 26 April, 2008.