Harman Kardon AVR 7200 Product Information - Page 12

Passion in full view - the marriage of audio and video. Movies, sound and music have been together since Jolson sang, Fred and Ginger danced and Rocky Horror went to the picture show. While some credit digital technology for marrying the intensity of sight to the pleasure of sound, the use of music to enhance a film's storyline has been there from the beginning. Indeed, even before "The Jazz Singer" ended the silent movie era forever, operatic tenors were used for early movie sound experiments. From Busby Berkley in the Thirties to extravaganzas in the Fifties... from Elvis's "Jailhouse Rock" to rock operas of the Sixties and Seventies...from the peace and love of "Woodstock" to the grim drama of "Apocalypse Now," music and movies have always gone hand in hand. Even when music isn't at the forefront of the drama, it often provides the signature that binds our emotions to a film. Think of the banjo accompaniment in "Deliverance." It seems simple, yet at the same time is a key part of a multilayered story. Recall the memorable songs that set the mood of "Midnight Cowboy" or "American Graffiti." No, these movies weren't musicals, but without music they wouldn't have been the same. Sometimes just a few musical notes forever become a part of our movie experience. The foreboding cello stabs in Jaws, the tone code pattern of "Close Encounters," the four notes of Strauss we will forever associate with images of the ape and the monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey." Would your vision of these films be the same without the sound bites to which they are forever linked? Today, sound is an essential element of every movie - think of "Gladiator," "Moulin Rouge," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" or "The Phantom Menace." Space ships or jets fly from one corner of the screen to another. Cars - even entire universes - explode before your eyes. Aliens converse and even sing in strange tongues. Computers whir, clocks tick, engines roar, and everything has to be positioned in the proper place to mesh seamlessly as the story unfolds on the screen. Thanks to the use of digital audio technology in both the creation and playback of cinema soundtracks, movies are, to use the old slogan, "better than ever." Using some of that same digital technology, Harman Kardon brings the total sensory side of the movie experience home, complete with lush soundtracks, precisely positioned effects and flawless dialogue reproduction. In addition, our DVD players produce perfect pictures to match the sound. Movies and music. We've all enjoyed that seat in a darkened theater, that magical place where pictures and sound come together. Now, with Harman Kardon, you can bring that best seat in the house right into your own home. 22