I looked on Harman's site for theater solutions.
For premium large format theaters (one they label the Ultimate Moviegoing experience) they use a Lexicon QLI32 to feed Crown amps and various JBL speakers. 32 channels worth or so.
Claimed specs for the QLI32 which has its own networked connection to all the amps. Now the analog inputs and mic inputs are mostly for calibration of the theater. The Blu Link digital to the amps is what carries the signal. It is receiving AES/EBU inputs from the Cinema server.
They have ample power in various models.
The Blu link digital signal goes into Crown DCI 4 2400 N Drive core based amplifiers. Sometimes they go thru 70v transformer systems to power speakers and sometimes not. The PDF doesn't show up well in a screen shot so here is the file on those.
https://www.crownaudio.com/en/produ...inal-pdf-817cf81c-7e3d-49f8-b42a-adedfb15cdc2
This PDF shows a sample system schematic. Lots and lots of speakers and lots of power.
https://e265b8fd1ff9a586c366-1acdfa...an_Standard_Template_-_Cinema_-_350__Seat.pdf
I will excerpt some of the pertinent specs here. FR is +/- .25 db. SNR A-wtd >108 db. THD at full power is .35% on these amps.
Amir has reviewed on DriveCore amp, and it has results you'd expect from such specs. Very powerful, but versus something like Purefi, Hypex, or Benchmark amps probably 3rd rate.
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/.../crown-xls2502-stereo-amplifier-review.10627/
Since the signal is digital until the DriveCore amps, the performance of those amps will be the electronic bottleneck on the quality of the output signal. As your basic Marantz or Denon pre/pro at its rated output level equals or outperforms (mostly outperforms) these amps, they will in no way give you a lesser result than the big movie theaters. If you partner pre/pro's with quality amplifiers, then the pre/pro is a limiting bottleneck to electronic performance, but it generally is a 10 db or greater improvement over the results you'd get at a large premium movie theater.
Now getting the sound level, even bass response, and number of channels equal to those theaters is a different problem. One that may give the theater an advantage. Basic purity and quality of the signals if you have highly capable home speakers is not going to give you lesser results however.
It still is unfortunate that expensive pre/pros give us 3rd rate DAC performance. They may be audibly transparent nonetheless in nearly all real use scenarios. So with good amps and speakers with good room EQ and setup we probably aren't missing anything.
Furthermore, the better AVR's are likely equaling the overall results on the electronic signal if feeding good speakers compared to a large movie theater. They generally fall short of the pre/pros, and some are just poorly engineered. The better ones from Denon or Marantz are getting results about like the big theaters. A Denon AVR X3600H is better than them. It equals and slightly exceeds most pre/pros even. With cleaner than Crown power amps of substantial power capability.
So use a pre/pro and good power amps and the big movieplex has nothing on you. Use the AV receivers that do well in Amir's testing and you'll generally equal the big movieplex system.
More than a few people have commented that other than getting really, really loud the movie theaters don't have better sound. This just corroborates that.
. I think "The audience is listening" was so true when this came on. Everybody would shut up because the real movie was going to start.
