Glossary
131 En
Additi onal
Information
■ Re-Equalization
The tonal balance of a film soundtrack will be excessiv ely bright and harsh when
played back ov er audio equipment in the home because f ilm soundtracks were designed
to be played back in large movie theatres using very different professional equi pment.
Re-Equalization restores the correct tonal balance for watching a m ovie soundtrack in a
small home environment.
■ Adaptive Decorrela tion
In a movie theatre, a large number of surround speakers help create an en veloping
surround sound experience, but in a home theatre there are usually only two speakers.
This can make the s urround speakers sound l ike headphones that lack spaciousnes s and
env elopment. The surround sounds will also collapse into the closes t speaker as you
move away fr om the middle seat ing position. Adap tiv e Decorrelation slightl y changes
one surround channel’s time and phase relationship with respect to the o ther surround
channel. This expands the listening position and creates – with only two speakers – the
same spacious surround experience as i n a movie theatre.
■ Timbre Matching
The human ear changes our perception of a soun d depending on the d irection from
which the sound is co ming. In a movie theatre, there is an array of surround speakers so
that the surround informatio n is all around you. In a ho me theatre, you use o nly two
speakers located to the side of yo ur head. The Timbre Ma tching feature f ilters th e
information going to the surround speakers so that th ey more closely match the tonal
characteristics of the sound coming from the front speakers. This ensures seamles s
panning between the front and surround speakers.
■ BGC (Boundary Gain Compensation)
If your chosen listening room layout (for practical or aesthetic reas ons) results in the
most of the listeners being clos e to the rear wall, the resulting bass level can be
suff iciently reinforced by the boundary th at the overall sound quality becomes
“boomy”. THX Ultra2 receivers and controllers contain the BGC (Boun dary Gain
Compensation) feature to pro vide an improved bass balance. “Bndry Gain C omp” can
be selected b y setting “THX Ultra2 SWFR” to “Y es” in “THX Set” of “Manual Setup”.
■ ASA (Adv anced Speake r Array )
ASA is a proprietary THX technol ogy which processes the sound fed to 2 side and 2
back surround speakers to provide the optimal surround s ound experience. When you
set up your home theater s ystem using all eight speaker output s (Left, Center , Right,
Surround Right, Surround Back Rig ht, Surround Back Left, Surround Left and
Subwoofer), be sure to go to the “THX Set” screen and choose the sett ing that most
closely corresponds to t he speaker spacing, which will re-optimize the su rround sound-
fiel d.
ASA is used in three modes; THX Ultra2 Cinema, THX Ultra2 Music and THX Ultra2
Games.
■ Dialogue normalization
Dialogue Normaliz ation (Dial Norm) is a feature of Dol by Digital, which is used to
keep the programs at the same a verage lis tening level so the user does not have to
change the volume control between Dolby Digital programs.
When playing back software wh ich has been encoded in Dolby Digital, som etimes you
may see a brie f message in t he front panel display which wi ll read “Dia l Norm X dB”
(X being a numeric value). The display is showing how the program level relates with
THX calibration level. If you want to play the program at calibrated theat rical le vels,
you may wish to adjus t the volume. For example, if you see the following message:
“Dial Norm + 4 dB” in the fro nt panel displa y , to keep the overall output level at THX
calibrated loudness, jus t turn down the volume control by 4 dB. Howev er , unlike a
movie theater where the playback loudness is p reset, you can choose your preferred
volume setting for best enjoyment.
■ Elements of a sound field
What really creates the rich, full tones of a live instrument are th e multip le reflecti ons
from the walls of the room. In addition to makin g the sound live, these reflections
enable us to tell whe re the player is s ituated as well as the size and shape of the room in
which we are sitting.
There are two distinct types of sound reflections that combine to m ake up the sound
field in addition to the direct sound com ing straight to our ears from the player’s
instrument.
Early reflections
Reflected sounds reach our ears extremely rapidly (50 ms to 100 ms after the direct
sound), after reflecting from one surface only (fo r example, from a wall or the ceiling).
Early reflections actually add clarity t o the direct sou nd.
Reverberations
These are caused b y reflections from more than one surf ace (for example, from the
walls, and the ceiling) so numerous t hat they merge together to form a continuous sonic
afterglo w . The y are non-directional and lessen th e clarity of the di rect sound.
Direct sound, early reflections and subsequent reverberations taken together help us to
determine the subjective size and shape of the room, and it is this i nformation that the
digital sound field processor reproduces in order to create sou nd fields.
If you could create the approp riate early reflections and subsequent reverberations in
your listening room, yo u would be able to create your own listening environment. The
acoustics in your room could be ch anged to those of a concert hall, a dance floor, or a
room with virtually any size at all. This ability to create sound fields at will is exactly
what Y a maha has done with the digital sound field processor .
■ CINEMA DSP
Since the Dolby Surround and DTS system s were originally designed for use i n movie
theaters, th eir effect is best felt in a theater having many speakers designed for acoustic
effects. Since home conditions, such as room size, wall material , number of speakers,
and so on, can differ so widely , it is inevitable that there are differences in the sound
heard. Based on a wealth of actually measured data, Y amaha CINEMA DSP provides
the audiovisual experience of a movie theate r in the listening room of yo ur own home
by using the Y a maha original sound field technol ogy combined with various digital
audio systems.
■ CINEMA DSP HD³
The actually measured soun d field data contain the information of t he height of the
sound images. CINEMA DSP HD³ feature achieves the reproduction of the accurate
height of the sound images so t hat it creates the accurate and intensiv e stereoscopic
sound fields in a listening room.
■ SILENT CINEMA
Y a maha has dev eloped a natural, realistic sound effect DSP algorithm for headphones.
Parameters for headphones hav e been set for each sound field so that accurate
representations o f all the soun d field programs can be enjoyed on headphones.
■ Virtual CINE MA DSP
Y a maha has de veloped a V irtual CINEMA DSP algorithm that allows you to enjoy DSP
sound field surround effects e ven without any surround speakers by using virtual
surround speakers. It is even possible to enjoy V irtual CINEMA DSP using a minimal
two-speak er system that does not incl ude a center speaker .
■ Compressed Music Enhan cer
The Compressed Music Enhancer feature of this unit enhances your listening
experience by regenerating the missing harmonics in a comp ression arti fact. As a result,
flattened complexity due to the lo ss of high-frequency fidel ity as well as lack of bass
due to the loss of low-frequency bass is compensat ed, providing improved performance
of the overall sound system.
Sound field program information