Hey guys. I have visited quite a few specialized cinema halls enough times now to be more confident in my assessment and would like to share . Do note that I will be brief since these details were discussed in my previous posts, but my opinions have changed in regards to my preferred cinema halls.

Disclaimer - do note that this is my personal opinion and I do not believe it is the end all, be all. I would encourage people to try out these halls themselves and come up with their own conclusions, and hopefully share them here too because it is interesting to see feedback on Malaysia's cinema quality while also hoping it could influence these cinema chains to improve with said feedback.

Films I have watched in their respected halls and location recently

Dr. Strange 2 - Onyx DA (GSC Tropicana Gardens Mall), IMAX (TGV 1-Utama) and Hall 11 MAXX DA  (GSC IOI City Mall)

Top Gun: Maverick - IMAX (TGV 1-Utama)

Onyx DA, Tropicana Gardens Mall GSC - Dr. Strange 2

Best visuals hands down; true blacks, vibrant colours, clear and crisp images. The great thing about Tropicana Gardens' Onyx hall is that the screen is actually pretty big. It is not as big as IMAX or MAXX, but it is definitely larger than the one in Mid Valley and your typical classic halls. I would recommend sitting in row F, G or maybe H, closer to the screen if you want to emulate that large screen factor of the biggies. I sat in row G and the screen encompass my vision almost fully. You don't have to worry about leaning your head backwards when you're this forward in this hall as the seating positioning centers you straight directly to the screen. I don't have the opportunity to visit Central I-City to witness their Onyx screen size, but I do believe Gardens' houses one of the largest Onyx screens available in Malaysia, at least maybe until LaLaport's GSC opens.

Audio wise, the Dolby Atmos here is pretty sub par compared to other DA halls. While it has punch you would expect of DA speakers (pretty bassy and high volume but not ear shattering), it somehow lacked the surround sound aspect you would expect from DA. Maybe my ears are not as fine tuned as proper audiophiles, but I couldn't hear nor feel the surround imaging in this hall compared to my experience in IOI City's Maxx DA, where the audio imaging was very apparent. Furthermore, the highs were very harsh in some areas, more specifically, the saw scene on the bus (this isn't a spoiler as it is in the trailers), while the lows, primarily bass, was over-boosted, to the point where to me, it affected character dialogue as some lines became quite muddy to hear clearly.

Do note that it is not unwatchable with regards to my complaints about the audio, it is a relatively smooth ride. The audio just tends to be a bit distracting in few moments of the film. The big problem I have is the weak or even lack there of surround sound imaging. When halls are advertised to have Dolby Atmos, you would expect the distinct signature of directional audio that reflects what the film is displaying, and it is pretty disappointing to see the hall not uphold this promise well.

I would still recommend this hall purely for the visual quality. It was impressive to watch Dr. Strange 2 which contained quite a lot of vibrant, colourful imagery. There are few short scenes where the screen goes completely black, thus making the hall pitch black, further adding to the immersion of the film. I will say though, with a film with a lot of visual presence and motion, it did leave me a bit nauseated at the end, so do beware when watching a film with a lot of visual flare in this hall.

IMAX, 1-Utama TGV - Dr. Strange 2 and Top Gun: Maverick

I have been very critical of IMAX in my previous posts, mainly because of the experience you get doesn't necessarily justify the price you pay for. RM33 is no joke (used to be RM30, increased after The Batman) where other biggies' tickets can be bought for less than half the price (e.g. IOI City Maxx DA RM16 for early birds/Wednesday). There is the Maybank RM5 discount but unless the film still airs in IMAX halls in the 2nd week's Friday + weekend, let alone you owning a Maybank card, it's not really reliable. RM33 sets a very high expectation, and even though my gripes about Malaysia's standard of IMAX still holds true... I hate to admit, man, but I've converted (screeched, my wallet).

The screens are humongous. It could be because IMAX tends to position the seats closer to the screen compared to GSC/MBO's biggies but man, you can really feel the overwhelming sensation from the screen's scale. Yes, the IMAX screens in Malaysia aren't true IMAX size, but it's still darn impressive to witness every time I enter these halls. However, what harms IMAX a lot is the image quality. I won't regurgitate what this thread has mention many times about the outdated projectors, but yeah, it really sticks out like a sore thumb during few moments of the films, in particular with extreme wide-angle shots (landscape shots). You can really notice the blurriness and weak contrast during these landscape shots. For example, during the opening scene of Dr. Strange 2 with those colourful debris, you can notice how awkward the colours looked along with how noisy/messy the scene was contrast wise, as the camera shot zooms in towards the two characters.

Thankfully, Top Gun: Maverick didn't really suffer much from this problem. It could be due to how this film was shot when considering the aspect of aviation flights, and how they are able to mask a lot of the extreme wide-angle shots with speedy action and some scenes with colour filtering/post-processing. Despite this, the blurriness was primarily noticeable during a landscape shot of a snowy forest filled with coned-like trees. The greens of the trees looked quite washed out, especially when the camera's moved to zoom in. Honestly, most films look off when there's fast camera movement, especially during noisy scenes that pertains many objects, but this can't excuse how low resolution these extreme wide-angle shots look. I definitely feel like these problems can be minimized with higher resolution projectors. Do note that during my Onyx session with Dr. Strange 2, motion clarity was a bit harsh as well, but it was not as bad as IMAX & Maxx.

Aside from wide-angle shots, every other aspect of the films was very impressive to watch. Any shots smaller than wide angled ones looked sharp and crisp, and even though these landscape shots are distracting and somewhat low resolution, you still feel some wow and awe BECAUSE of the large screen size.

Image quality aside, audio is what many people here adore about IMAX. I did complain in prior posts about IMAX's audio volume before as it was uncomfortably loud at certain scenes during my The Batman session. It still kinda holds through but during my viewing of Dr. Strange 2 and Top Gun 2, it pleasantly comfortable. It was still loud, high octane and awe-inspiring, but not as harmful to me during The Batman. I mean, all films are post-processed differently as they are made by different people, but overall, I was very satisfied with IMAX's audio. The surround sound was definitely noticeable, though in my opinion, not as impressive as good Dolby Atmos halls. Despite that, IMAX makes up plenty with this... rumble sensation... I don't know man haha, I'm not a seasoned audiophile who knows the proper words to critically describe the audio sensations, IT JUST FELT BOMBASTIC!

I hate to admit it because I hate spending a lot of money to watch films in cinemas, especially when you can purchase tickets half the price of IMAX from big screen competitors, but man, there are films where you really have to experience them in IMAX, and to be honest, these two films are no exception, Top Gun: Maverick especially. I mean, the fact that I still harbor that wish to watch The Batman again in IMAX despite my complaints prior shows how captivating IMAX is. While I don't believe its image quality is the best (in terms of biggies, BigScreen is better than IMAX) nor is my favourite audio set up (I still prefer IOI City's Maxx Dolby Atmos' audio signature), IMAX for me contains a high level of consistency between impressive visual and audio quality, thus making 1-Utama's TGV IMAX my go-to cinema hall for the time-being (as Central I-City is way too far and complex for me to visit).

MAXX DA (Hall 11), IOI City Mall GSC - Dr. Strange 2

Formerly my go-to cinema hall, mainly because it is the closest one to my residence while being reasonably priced. It will still be my go-to hall ONLY for re-watches after IMAX.

In my opinion, there isn't much of a visual quality difference between MAXX and IMAX (digital which all Malaysian IMAX halls use), but because the latter is bigger (or at least feels bigger because of how close the seats are to the screen), IMAX comes out to be the more captivating experience. Both suffer from low resolution shots, primarily with extreme wide-angles. The small positive of MAXX is that because the screen size isn't as big as IMAX, the problems regarding visual quality isn't as jarring as the latter, but I will still prefer IMAX purely due to the screen's size and scale. That and again, IMAX still looks sharp and crisp in any shots smaller than extreme wide-angles, same can be said about MAXX, but again, won't feel as impressive as IMAX.

Now on to audio. It is slightly lower volume than IMAX, but it's still loud and impressive, and in my opinion, more comfortable than IMAX. It's only in IOI City Mall where a big screen is accompanied by an impressive Dolby Atmos speakers configuration. I would attribute this towards the THX certification these halls hold, as other big screen halls (Tropicana and Starling BigScreen in particular) advertises to have DA, but they don't have THX certifications, thus they have inconsistencies that I've complained about prior. IOI City's DA has great bass, better and pinpoint-able surround sound and decent rumble; I think it's less bombastic than IMAX but is more comfortable to the ears IMO.

While it is not as impressive as IMAX as a whole experience, it is still very compelling and a great value for the price. I still believe it is a way better value than IMAX (RM16 early bird vs RM33 no early bird discount offered, no competition), but IMAX still has that wow factor that other biggies haven't really inspired in me yet.

Quick summary of other cinema halls I've visited (more info about them can be found in previous posts here)

Mid Valley GSC Onyx: Great visuals, but I would treat this hall as a tech-intro to Onyx rather than a go-to cinema hall. It uses a JBL surround sound system, but honestly, it didn't sound as good as IMAX or DA. If you prefer Onyx, I would recommend the one in Tropicana Gardens Mall instead as that one comes with (not-so-great but still an improvement) DA speakers and a larger screen.

Starling and Tropicana Gardens GSC BigScreen: Starling's screen is bigger than Tropicana's, but IMO, the latter is way easier to visit (personally) because the mall is directly connected to the MRT station. Visually, you can't go wrong with both screens as they use 4k projectors compared to IMAX's dual 2k (which I believe MAXX uses as well), and among the biggies, BigScreen is visually the best. The only downsides are their DA configuration. They are pretty low volume and have less noticeable surround sound accuracy. The audio signature here tends to be flat and clear, which you may prefer. Do note that I'm basing my info about BigScreen mostly from Tropicana's, as I've only visited Starling's BigScreen once (and never again) and apparently, quite a few people here along with OP have praised Starling's sound system quite significantly, so I would advise you to visit and judge for yourself.

Sunway Velocity TGV IMAX: I think it is the 2nd biggest IMAX screen in Malaysia, only behind Central I-City, but like any other IMAX halls, it is has the quality assurance. The downside is that the air-conditioning blows very loud from above and is audible during quiet moments of films. Otherwise, this would be my go-to IMAX hall since it is the closest one to my residency... but... oh man... the God damn seating arrangements are TRASH, HORRIBLE! (Reference: "Stephen A. goes on EPIC RANT after Knicks blow 28-PT lead to Nets | NBA Countdown," Youtube). More info of my rant can be found in prior posts. I would recommend this hall if you live near it and most importantly have a partner to go with. Otherwise, not great for a solo movie goer.

Classic halls, GSC vs TGV: TGV classic halls are better as the audio tends to be higher quality there. They balance their audio much better than GSC, which the latter may have certain audio tracks be louder than the dialogue ones; GSC tends to be more imbalance. In regards to dialogue censoring, TGV censors cusses better than GSC as the former silences dialogue only whereas GSC just cuts all the audio during the cussing moment (biggest and recent example is Dr. Strange 2 where Strange swears as he faints. TGV muted the dialogue but maintained the background audio while GSC just cuts that whole audio segment out in general, leaving the cinema hall awkwardly silent for a short moment).

I did visit other cinema halls in the past such as Mid Valley's DA and Sunway Pyramid's IMAX, but that was many years ago, before I became a cinema enthusiast as of recently.

TLDR of my personal thoughts

Visual quality: Onyx > BigScreen > IMAX > MAXX (note that IMAX still wins out for that large screen awe factor, just not visually)
Audio quality: IOI City's MAXX DA > IMAX > Tropicana Garden's ONYX DA > BigScreen DA

I may try 4DX and MX4D in the future, but I'm not too fond of the idea of moving seats while watching a film. I still prefer sitting idly while enjoying a large screen experience with impressive audio. I don't think those motion halls contain special speakers like DA but who knows. There's 1U's ScreenX and DA only halls as well but again, not too interested. I hope you guys can share more about your experience with these halls and hope some of you can convince me like how many here convinced me about IMAX despite the price. Thanks again for reading and I hope this helps!