Home theater sound systems aren’t like trail mix. With trail mix, you can chuck in anything by the handful and you’ve got a tasty snack; salty peanuts, chocolate M&Ms, raisins, etc., it really doesn’t matter what you throw in and it still tastes good.

Home theater speakers don’t work that way though. You can’t grab the cabinets from the old record player in the basement or detach the pair from the 80’s style ghetto blaster in the garage and expect any level of movie theater quality when you put them together for your home theater system. Even if you have a great sounding pair of speakers for use in a 2-channel pure music listening system, it can do more harm than good to use them in a multi-channel system. You’ll end up with a home theater system that has no consistency in the audio presentation as the movie effects move from one speaker to the other. This results in a poor and unrealistic performance, and overall bad sound quality.

This is because every speaker model in the above example has a different sonic signature. When mixing and matching between different models, brands, and speaker types, there can be a severe loss of sonic consistency. The key is to try and find speakers that have as similar sound reproduction (or timbre) as possible when creating a multi-channel system; this will make the cinematic experience as lifelike as possible. Historically, timbre matching was all that was done to create a cohesive system. But now with DCM’s own One Voice technology, finding similar sonic signatures (for both sound and dynamic reproduction) has never been so close to cloning.

Matching the timbre between speakers is not a new concept; many manufacturers and speaker makers have been doing it for years. It’s a fine first step in creating a more realistic performance. As the action and sound effects move from the far right of the screen to the far left, you won’t be able to tell which speaker is playing what. It will sound more natural and give better definition to where the sound is supposed to be happening. But this is commonplace in many home theaters these days, and it doesn’t necessarily provide you with a great sounding system. Even the dime a dozen HTiBs can claim to be “timbre matched” because they use the exact same model for all the satellites. Most importantly, timbre matching alone can’t reproduce the impact and realism of the visual effects. What you’re hearing should match what you’re watching. For example, a machine gun in an action movie shouldn’t sound like someone tap dancing, it should sound like a machine gun, and it should sound that way if it’s being shot from the left, the right, behind, or right at you. The sound should also be able to deliver the dynamic range needed to truly take your home theater experience to the next level- from whisper quiet to stampede loud. Timbre matching doesn’t come close to accomplishing this. The One Voice technology takes timbre matching that needed step further. It matches the sonic characteristics between all speakers and series, so that many different models can be mixed and used together- making them ideal for any application in any size and shape of room. This is accomplished through the use of nearly identical design, materials, and testing. The driver material used in all DCM models that feature One Voice for example, are high quality materials matched for durability and more accurate reproduction.

Using One Voice technology is only possible when the speakers are completely engineered from scratch. It takes having control over every facet of the design to achieve this level of performance, or more precisely this level of interaction between such varying speaker models. After this careful engineering, the sonic signatures of each model are tested for performance.

The flexibility and expandability this creates is one of the biggest advantages of One Voice technology. As the innovators of One Voice, DCM currently has twelve models that feature this technology. This includes towers, minitowers, bookshelves, center channels, in-walls, in-ceilings, and even a bipole/dipole surround. Since all these different models can be used in conjunction with each other, anyone can build the system that meets their needs. For instance, imagine you want to add a center and surrounds to your existing 2-channel system; it’s possible without sacrificing sound quality or appearance. Or if you’re looking for a full 7.1 system using a combination of towers, bookshelves, and in-ceilings, there are finally the high performance models to achieve just that. Plus, when the time comes to upgrade the rear surrounds from bookshelves to towers, it can be done without losing the sonic realism needed to make your movies come to life.

So although it may seem like a good idea to recycle your old audio equipment and “Frankenstein” yourself a new home theater, once you hear it you’ll understand why the villagers formed the angry mob. With One Voice technology, you won’t have to worry about losing performance or locking yourself into an expensive system for years to come. With so few worries, you can kick up your feet with a big bag of trail mix and enjoy the movies at the level of sound quality they were meant to have.

Over the past 25 years, DCM has developed a variety of loudspeakers for home stereo and home theater, each a masterpiece of sound and design and each with the same love of music that gave birth to the legend of DCM. For more information and the latest DCM news, please visit www.DCMspeakers.com or call (877) DCM-LOUD.