Okay listen first off its not gonna sound like it but I totally get it. People with HT setups love their HT setups in spite of the horrid sound. Or maybe even because of the horrid sound. I get that. Do not understand why anyone would want to waste their money on horrid sound but they do and so I totally get that.
Thought I would clear things up and expand on this, being the guy who wrote it and all.
Its not satirical, and only a little over the top, which I love, for trigger value if nothing else.
First off, not talking about the 0.01% of cinemaphiles who really do want to watch movies with the best sound they can get. If that is what I meant to say then that is what I would have said. Instead I said, "People with HT setups love their HT setups" the emphasis being on "HT setups" and NOT getting the best sound.
This to me is the whole problem in a nutshell. The whole HT industry has pushed their multi-channel approach from THX on down to where people are totally brainwashed to the point they seem to think watching movies with less than 7 channels isn't even watching movies. So much so that when it comes to HT they aren't even capable of giving serious consideration to the patently obvious fact that two speakers are perfectly capable of better performance than 4 or 5 or 7 or even 7.1.
Think about it. Multi-channel is so horrid, to stick with the original term, it was abandoned for serious music not years ago but decades ago. Why? Many reasons, but by far the most important is that when it comes to being believable quality matters far more than quantity. More in this case is not better.
Anyone seriously into this, especially if shopping for HT, should do what I did. Go and listen. Compare. What you will find, without exception and without a doubt, nothing multi-channel sounds anywhere near as good as stereo, at least not without spending many times as much money. Which is bad enough. But worse, above a certain threshold, which is reached a whole lot sooner than you might think, no amount of money will get you surround anywhere near as good as stereo.
Just to beat this dead horse to pulp, take any $5000 A/V component you can find, new or used, don't care. Best one you can find. Hook it up and compare side by side with any $5k integrated amp. Any. Worst one you can find, brand new, whatever. Does not matter. Won't even be close. Compared side by side with stereo the HT component will sound.... not even close. Horrid.
And yet a lot of HT people love their demonstrably horrid sounding HT systems. Listen to what they say- because stereo is missing surround. They love the extra channels. That create the horrid sound. Therefore, logically, they literally do love their HT setups because of the horrid sound.
Its not satirical at all. Its actually a pretty straightforward conclusion.