Surround sound immediately improves the quality of any high-fidelity home theater setup, but installing and positioning it effectively can also be one of the more challenging home theater mini-projects. While the hallmark of a high-fidelity surround system is its ability to support the fullest possible spectrum range of frequencies, certain movies make it easier to test a system’s range, clarity, and localization. Below are the go-to recommendations for the best movies to test surround sound, according to our highly experienced Bay Area audio installation experts at Performance Audio.
Read on to learn both:
1. The best movies for surround sound testing
2. The best movies to watch with surround sound
If you’re like us, you’ll find that as you do one, you find yourself slipping into the other!
WALL-E
With its wide, hyperreal spectrum of shifting mechanical and environmental noises, we consider WALL-E the best movie for surround sound if you’re looking for a consistent audio field that blends well throughout the soundtrack. It’s also one of the best movies for surround speaker localization tests, with nonstop mechanical whirs, clicks, and clacks that accurately move through the audio field in perfect sync with the onscreen action.
The WALL-E soundtrack also has no shortage of larger-than-life spaceship sounds, tone-rich dialogue, and symphonic suites, making it perfect to balance your subwoofer into the overall mix. Above all, you want to ensure the aesthetics don’t compete with the need for consistent clarity.
Saving Private Ryan
To test your system’s limits, it’s no surprise that one of the best movies for surround sound involves heavy, bass-fueled explosions and emotionally charged moments of tension, followed by moments of respite (and ear reattunement). War movies, in general, often challenge sound designers to match highly location-dependent sounds with widely dispersed activity.
Saving Private Ryan serves nicely on both fronts, making it one of the best movies for even the highest-powered surround sound systems on the market. Just be sure your subwoofer is up for the challenge, and put SPR firmly in your list of best surround sound movies to test or enjoy.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
All the Lord of the Rings movies heavily relied on the magic of sound to pull viewers into its otherworldly realm. It should be no surprise, then, that The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is widely considered the best movie to test surround sound, especially from the fantasy genre.
That’s not just our opinion; the Academy Awards also considered The Hobbit the best movie for surround sound (and sound overall!), giving their sound team an Oscar in 2012. It was also the first movie ever released in Dolby Atmos, an advanced surround sound scheme still heavily relied on for its immersive sound field that maximizes the spatial separation between speakers using various psychoacoustic (sound psychology) effects.
One of the most useful things about the Hobbit’s soundtrack, for testing purposes, is that nearly any type of sound could happen at any moment. Thus, it’s necessary to ensure gentle nature sounds, screaming dragons, basic dialogue, and believably unreal magic sparkles and “whoosh” noises can hold your attention at any given moment!
As far as finding the best movies to test surround sound, this makes it easy to spot any imbalance quickly. Speaker positions and EQ settings that work for one category of sound may conflict with the quality of another sound type, challenging your ability to keep the panning, frequency response, bass/treble crossover, and numerous other technical settings from conflicting.
When you get it right, though, the reward is a true set-it-and-forget-it experience with a hard-won default setting that will almost certainly work for any other movie. For all these reasons and more, we consider The Hobbit the best movie for surround sound when you need to tune your system for a bit of everything.
Bring the Theater Experience Home with Surround Sound from Performance Audio
When it comes to creating the ultimate movie-watching experience in the comfort of your own home, nothing quite compares to the immersive power of surround sound. With Performance Audio, you can elevate your movie nights to a whole new level, bringing the magic of the theater right to your living room.
Performance Audio offers a wide range of surround sound options to suit every budget and preference. From compact soundbars to full-fledged home theater systems, their cutting-edge technology and superior craftsmanship ensure you get the best sound quality possible.
So, why settle for a mediocre movie night when you can have the theater experience right at home? With surround sound from Performance Audio, you can enjoy your favorite films like never before, with every detail and nuance brought to life. Upgrade your movie-watching experience today and indulge in the ultimate audio immersion that only surround sound can provide.
