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IMHO, you're paying extra bucks for a receiver that you can tell all your friends George Lucas would like. George Lucas also has enough money to finance his own multimillion dollar films. The manufacturer has to pay licensing fees to THX, much like movie theaters have to pay to get their theatres THX certified.
I work for a movie theatre and we have one THX certified auditorium. Theatres pay thousands of dollars to have a guy come out and take a few mesaurments and if you pass, you get the privilidge of having a little Plaque on your wall and a few nifty little THX trailers. Mechanically speaking, there isn't a single difference between that auditorium and the other auditoriums, except for the little sign and the little trailers before the movie. Same sound equipment, same auditorium design, same same same. Oh, I'm sorry, they add a little bass management crossover to your system that has a niftly little THX logo on it. Can you hear a difference? no. Is it better built equipment? No...because it's the exact same equipment, made by the exact same people.
The truth is, all of our theatres could qualify for THX certification. But we're not going to pay thousands and thousands more to have the nifty little logo and trailers. Same, I believe goes for audio equipment for the home. I'm sure most high-end audio equipment with or without the little logo, if tested, would meet THX's set of standards. But to me, it has no more bearing than ISO9000 or Underwriter Laboratories. It means, "we paid someone to tell us our stuff is ok...now we're passing the cost on to you...plus a little something extra since we know most of you will pay more for more fancy little logos on your stuff."
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