In regards to the ever increasing quality of home audio. (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

What we have now on DVD essentially exceeds that in theaters (for Dolby atleast) if you have a good enough system. With many people talking about 24 bit 7 channel audio as a requirement for HD-DVD, I got thinking...

At what point does the audio format surpass the source audio. I mean only movies in the last decade or so even recorded the source audio in 24 bits, right? Hell, Star Wars didn't switch to 24 bit until Episode II. I mean, when do we reach the point where the audio is limited by the source for every release?

 

[Dan Kaplan]

I don't know about bits and all, but I think 5.1 has already hit the point where it exceeds the average theater and is more than good enough for all but the most critical listeners. I never have much luck convincing the uninitiated that a solid home theater can beat most cinemas, but as most everyone here knows, it only takes a few minutes of demo'ing to convince them. My relatively inexpensive ($2400 paid, $7300 list) audio setup in a poorly laid out room leaves nothing to be desired (by me).
If I had the processing for 6.1 or 7.1, I'd probably get more amps and speakers to make use of it, but I honestly cannot hear any need for it in my current system. I've never picked up on any of the channel panning inconsistencies some people complain about, but that might be because all my speakers and amps match. I just don't see that more is better at this point. Then again, I didn't see the need for better speakers until I added good amps...
The last movie I watched in a theater left me feeling like I had just watched an old Pro Logic presentation...
I figure video is where the focus on improvement should continue. Read any technical review and see where the concerns typically are... Other than the occasional title having too much dynamic range compression, there rarely are any audio complaints (beside the soundtrack itself, which no number of bits will make up for). Video complaints, on the other hand, are quite common place.
I don't know if that directly answers your question, but I figured I'd share my thoughts.
Dan