Xtreme Vue Cinema

[Sherlene Holloman]

CinemaExtreme was a major UK short film funding awards scheme, created in 2002. The scheme was funded by the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund and Film4 and managed by The Bureau with the aim "to seek out and develop filmmakers with a distinctive directorial voice and cinematic flair". The fund was awarded on an annual basis, offering funding to a slate of around four short films.

Nineteen films were commissioned. They have been shown at festivals around the world and won numerous awards including Best Short at the Edinburgh International Film Festival for Duane Hopkins' Love Me or Leave Me Alone and the Oscar for Best Short Film for Andrea Arnold's Wasp.

I've been in contact with Peter Lawson from Krix to get more information on these. They are Model KX-5920 speakers from their existing "Pro Range" and are actually used in commercial theaters. The Subwoofers are Krix KX-4010's turned on their side and at CEDIA they had the Seismix 5 Amplifier module sitting on top. These can be self-powered or powered from rack mounted amplifiers. I also enquired about Model KX-1840 and KX-1870 Surround speakers (As they appeared to be the most suitable speaker to match the mains) and they cost $700:00 and $800:00 respectively.

Peter also indicated Krix are working on Dipole versions of the KX-1840 & KX-1870 models but final pricing is not yet in. He's also updated his personal Blog with comments regadring the Xtreme speakers (I haven't located or read it yet).

The kx-5920 is one of a family of new generation 3 way systems which are designed for the Cinema complex of the 21st Century, offering a significant improvement in audio quality compared to the best 2 way designs. To put this in broad technical terms, it is a requirement for these systems to perform best with stadium seating, whilst maintaining a shallow profile on the complete assembly so that wasted space behind the screen is minimised.

To achieve a lower distortion figure and flatter frequency response in the mid and high frequencies, the correct loading and pattern control had to be engineered. Using new sophisticated loudspeaker modeling techniques, along with experience gained from a long and succesful association with the cinema industry, Krix has gained the reputation as an innovator. The Krix new generation 3 way designs are the correct solution for this type of advanced speaker system.

This complete system can also be specified with a bi-amped passive filter network between the midrange and high frequency and should a passive filter be required the model number to be specified is a kx-5920B. The passive filter network will be factory fitted within the midrange enclosure.

Cinema stage subwoofer loudspeaker featuring a single 18" bass driver enclosure with large vent areas, which are vital for efficient low frequency radiation at high power, and are a feature of Krix subwoofers. Vertical back bracing is locked and rebated into the top and bottom panels with front to back brace for added cabinet rigidity.

Large peak to peak linear cone excursion and large vent areas, together with the correct enclosure volume and tuning, have all been optimised to give large linear power response at all frequencies. That is, little compression occurs at high levels at very low frequencies.

The kx-1870 cinema surround loudspeaker offers high power handling, high efficiency with low frequency extension down to 40Hz (-10dB free space). The cabinet is braced and critically damped and features a 15 degree angled front baffle to ensure optimum coverage within the auditorium and to eliminate 'audio spill' onto the ceiling.

The high frequency drive unit is a specially damped, high power, 28mm doped fabric dome tweeter. Coupled with the specifically designed waveguide, the optimum dispersion of 90 degrees horizontal and 40 degrees vertical is consistently maintained over the entire working bandwidth. The combined high frequency response is exceptionally smooth and well controlled setting a new bench mark for surround loudspeaker reproduction.

The single 10 inch (250mm) bass driver has a 2 inch (50mm) voice coil and has been developed to offer low harmonic distortion, especially in the critical midband. Likewise the paper cone and surround of the bass driver has also been developed to provide the smoothest possible response.

The crossover network has been designed and built using close tolerance, professional grade components, perfectly blending the output from the two drive units. Matching the acoustic phase of both units through the crossover region ensures the widest possible coverage, with the response following the 'X' curve (ISO2969) characteristic as specified for use in cinemas.

While 25k is very cheap,you need to remember these are not really suitable for Home theatre UNLESS YOU HAVE MIN 50 PLUS SEAT VERY,VERY LARGE HT and sound quality not very good,they go loud which is what you need in 300 to 500 seat theatre,subs diferent you could use those in average 3 to 12 seat theatre they would be good.

Once upon a time people didn't think 2500 watt Subwoofers were suitable for Home Theaters either. Now some people run 4 of them (Or more) even in non-dedicated rooms. Sure these speakers go loud so you only have the volume at a level suitable for your room.

Hehe they were quit large and living in the unit at the time was very comical when they turned up. Yes they sounded excellent and I miss the horn which imo was very accurate and revealing. One thing to remember is the Krix may not be magnetically shielded as I found out the hard way when my JBL's arrived. Turned my brothers 68cm CRT tv picture into a purple blob until he upgraded to a larger rear projection. Something to keep in mind but wont be a problem if your using a projector and screen.

HT does demand power as dynamic range is very large and unlike cd which is compressed,dvd and bluray are not,as for bass large drivers need lots of power to control and drive subs .Midrange and highs do not demand much power 105db at 10khz is very lound,105 at 20hz nothing hence subs for thx need to do 115db to compensate for audible threshold ie 15hz 90db ,20hz 84db 30hz 68db at listening position.

There is plenty sub 20hz in movies ie sound engineers at TODD-AO for Black Hawk Down monitored that infrasonic content which lay beyond EVEN refrigerator sized subs,mastered with BIG Bag End PRO subwoofers 22 of them!(not a misprint)

These are indeedy very very loud speakers and yes they are well and truly capable of filling these high capacity cinemas with lots of effortless, clean and crisp sound. BUT! In a smaller theatre environment, they have the capacity to be even MORE impressive. Remember that these are highly efficient speakers and can produce amazing sound and very low volume levels. (Compared with what they're capable of)

In addition, did anyone see the latest CEDIA results? One of the winners was a new Krix Xtreme Cinema speaker setup using the KX-5920s. And it's only a 10 seat cinema. Ive heard individuals reports that this cinema is one of the best sounding cinemas they'd ever heard. Impressive!

As some of you know, we are in the process of building these exact speakers into a 5m x 8m room and this new range of Xtremes are available now through a select few dealers across Australia. Of which we are one.

As good as this system looks, I wonder how what the frequency resonse of the subs actually is. I thought that to get the output required in a large venue, one sacrificed extension for output. Mu guess is the subs are tuned for 27-28hz hence the large ports on the front and drop very quickly after that. They can play very loud, but what can they do at 20hz? I may be wrong, but I thought that bass extension in a theater is limited to 30hz or so. Happy tp stand corrected if I am off the mark.

I saw these several months ago at the Krix Factory. I was shown around the floor and was very impressed. A guy in Melbourne spend over $100,000 on his HT set up and included a set of those speakers for $25,000. I am a few cm shy of 6ft so here you can get a good sense of the size of these monsters.

@Wonka1 - Interestingly, this is not the first time this question has been asked and I have posted a question to the Krix boys to hopefully shed some light on your concerns. Unfortunately, I do not have the knowledge quite that in depth but we are all learning more about these products everyday. As a little experiment to myself, I have connected our KX-4010A up to our receiver which is currently running some Neuphonix FPs and although I understand the issues with doing so, I was mainly interested in what the sub would do with some of our existing demo stock.

In a space of approx 7m x 5m I was able to sit back and enjoy some really powerful bass. The movies like Black Hawk Down, The Haunting and Master & Commander served up some delightfully chest thumping bass from the 4010 and I was only sitting about 5m from the sub itself.

Even when I disconnected the fronts and ran sub alone, I could not only hear the higher frequencies very well but could also FEEL the power of the 18" at lower frequencies which was consice and without delay. In addition I was without a doubt, now enjoying bass previously not heard (and felt) clearly from the smaller subs on our other systems.

I'll admit, I may not know the maths down to a tee on these subs yet, but I do know that when those canons let rip in the second scene of Master & Commander, I felt like the bloody things had been launched my very way. Puts hairs on end people.

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