AUDIO ELECTRONICS

Projection Screens

Essentially, while many jump to the conclusion that the large screen is the key to an immersive experience, it truly is the audio equipment that creates the ambient environment for immersion.

The quality of electronics driving you speakers will determine the dynamics and detail of your immersive  experience.  

At Vassal High End, we carry, or have access within our distribution to, Major Brand names for the Home Theater like Onkyo, Denon, Marantz, Pioneer Elite, Yamaha and Integra.

However, our options run much deeper in to the depths of even higher end options, such as NAD, Primare, Audio Control, Monitor Audio, and dARTS (Digital Audio Reference Theater System). Each of these brands deliver a premium level of performance that is sonically well above the typical Home Theater experience. And we'd love to bring that experience to your home. 

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SPEAKERS

It is a frequent occurrence that we hear the term, "home theater speakers," as though the right speakers for a home theater are speakers designed specifically for home theater.

To that point, let's pose a few questions:

1. Do we have real life reference sounds for musical instruments?

2. Do we have real life reference sounds for a T-Rex walking around a field or picking up and eating a man who was sitting on a toilet?

Quite frankly, the answer to number 1 is YES, and the answer to number 2 is a definite NO.

When it comes to choosing speaker for your home theater, you want to choose speakers within your budget that will best reproduce musical sounds. If a speaker can capture and recreate a musical sound accurately, you know that speaker is also capturing and accurately reproducing a sound engineer's intended sound effects.

Our available speakers come in various designs suitable for the home theater. We have conventional options like bookshelf and tower speakers, but for those who choose a more sleek design, we have speakers available as in-wall and in-celing. Not wanting to cut holes, but you want them off the floor? No problem, we also have on-wall options.  

EXTERNAL AMPLIFIERS

Sometimes, a home theater enthusiast decides the internal amplification of an AV Receiver just isn't enough, and that enthusiast seeks to find an external amplifier to boost the performance of the home theater system. 

The addition of a 2-channel external stereo amplifier to power up the front right and front left channels of a home theater absolutely improves the performance of the ENTIRE system. By removing that massive load from the AV Receiver's duties, it relaxes all the other channels for the AV Receiver and a home theater becomes significantly more spacious in its sonic presentation.

We often see the addition of PA amplifiers in the systems which may give someone reason to ask some questions, in paticular: 

​Instead of a HiFi amp, is it acceptable to use external PA amps for the purpose of getting more power in your home theater system? 

The simple answer is “sure… it works . . . why not.” 

Now, at the risk of opening a can of worms, we might want to consider the “why not” a little more by asking a second, more important question:

Is there a reason to use HiFi amplification and does it make a difference?

When I consider this topic, the anchor points for me are sonic nuances, listening comfort, and the purpose in design concept.

Quite simply, PA amplification is designed for the purpose of robust power and sonic detailing in a long field environment. When designing PA equipment, there is an understanding that certain degrees of compression in the sound will dissipate over distance. I hear this all the time at outdoor events where I get to move around a lot. When I am 100 feet from the system, it sounds great. But as I get closer, the detail and clarity actually goes away because those sounds weren’t designed for detail and clarity at 15 ft. The mid-range and high frequencies are incredibly intense and get lost in one another. However, once a certain distance is achieved, those frequencies have been afforded enough space to sort themselves out and a lovely presentation is achieved.
 
Up close, there really isn’t a lot of listening comfort in a PA system. It may not hurt your ears in the immediate, but listening close up to PA ultimately results in listening fatigue, and hearing loss. Loudness is not immersion. Immersion is found in sonic nuances, definition and natural sound.

So, how is a HiFi amplifier better?
 
Well, the HiFi amplifier is designed for residential audio loudspeakers and what those speakers bring to the table. Residential audio loudspeakers are designed for the near-field environment. They aren’t designed to send sound several hundred feet. HiFi speakers are designed with the concepts of wall reflection and sonic absorption from various materials. In order to achieve clarity, they must achieve it immediately as it leaves the speaker, not in the matter of 150 feet. So, you need an amplifier that honors that design.

The HiFi amplifier is created to achieve listening comfort, even at louder listening levels in the nearfield. And they’re designed to do that with fine loudspeakers that will expose weaknesses in the amplifier’s design. Audiophiles have demanding standards, always looking for amplifiers and speakers which will best reproduce the intended recorded sound. In other words they look for “fidelity” or “faithfulness” to what the artists and recording engineer sought to achieve and convey. A HiFi system transcends its environment and takes your modestly sized listening room and turns it into a  a night club, a stadium, an intimate in-room performance with a singer songwriter, or the finest symphony concert hall. Imagine what that does for reproducing a movie soundtrack?
 
Movie sound engineers are masters at their craft, and a great HiFi amplifier helps to separate the best from the very best. Nuances are lost on lesser systems and found in the best system. A Hi Fidelity amp, a Highly Faithful amp, is what is needed to hear those nuances and do so with listening comfort over your Hi Fi loudspeakers.

The wisdom in the Home Theater business says to "Marry your screen and date your projector." The surface upon which you project an image determines a high degree of the performance you are able to achieve with your home theater projector. 

Additionally, if you choose to have speakers installed behind the screen in order to center your dialogue with the screen image, the sonic transparency of that material matters a lot. 

That's why Severtson Screens have been the choice of Vassal High End clients since we opened the shop. Severtson Screens holds contracts with Regal, Cinemark, AMC and IMAX. They often tell clients, we're the best screen you ever seen but never knew the name. 

Even the top engineers at Dolby Laboratories are using Severtson Screens in their own homes to experience Dolby Vision with stunning detail and definition, and Dolby Sound for Severtson's acoustic transparency.

While Severtson receives top brand recognition at Vassal High End, we understand that budget isn't unlimited. We have multiple other screen brands within our distribution channels and can help you with brands you may discover online. Simply contact us to learn more.

Projectors

Projectors are really coming into their own for creating an amazing home theater image, and even working as the workhorse for athletic events. 

With advanced 4K Chips, Light Engines powering up lasers, and advanced optics design, a great projector can be had a a very reasonable price. 

Yes, 8K exists, but right now, you may want to consider just how much content is available in 8K. Technology changes but it takes time and the content then has to catch up. The 8K will be more readily available later down the line, but right now, it's pretty limited. We have some 8K options for those ready to be future proof, but we find most clients are thrilled with our 4K projector options. 

Within our channels, we have Sony, JVC, Sim2, BenQ and Epson quite readily accessible. When Epson released the LS12000 4K projector a couple years ago, they really broke the mold on performance and pricing and truly set an amazing standard for the industry. It is one of the most exceptional projectors on the market and they've done it for a price that is accessible to many in the market.