Marantz SR7500 SR7500 User Manual - Page 5

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION THX® is an exclusive set of standards and technologies established by the world-renowned film production company, Lucasfilm Ltd. THX resulted from George Lucas' desire to reproduce the movie soundtrack as faithfully as possible both in the movie theater and in the home theater. THX engineers developed patented technologies to accurately translate the sound from a movie theater environment into the home, correcting the tonal and spatial errors that occur. When the THX mode of the SR7500 is on, three distinct THX technologies are automatically added: Re-Equalization-restores the correct tonal balance for watching a movie in a home environment. These sounds are otherwise mixed to be brighter for a large movie theater. Re-EQ compensates for this and prevents the soundtracks from being overly bright and harsh when played in a home theater. Timbre Matching-filters the information going to the surround speakers so they more closely match the tonal characteristics of the sound coming from the front speakers. This ensures seamless panning between the front and surround speakers. Adaptive Decorrelation-slightly changes one surround channel's time and phase relationship with respect to the other surround channel. This expands the listening position and creates with only two surround speakers the same spacious surround experience as in a movie theater with multiple surround speakers. The Marantz SR7500 was required to pass a rigorous series of quality and performance tests, in addition to incorporating the technologies explained above, in order to be THX certified by Lucasfilm Ltd. THX requirements cover every aspect of performance including pre-amplifier and power amplifier performance and operation, and hundreds of other parameters in both the digital and analog domain. Movies which have been encoded in Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby Pro Logic, stereo and Mono will all benefit from the THX mode when being viewed. The THX mode should only be activated when watching movies which were originally produced for a movie theater environment. THX need not be activated for music, movies made especially for TV, or shows such as sports programming, talk shows, etc. This is because they were originally mixed for a small room environment. THX is a trademark or registered trademark of THX Ltd. Surround EX is a jointly developed technology of THX and Dolby Laboratories, Inc. and is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories, Inc. Used under authorization. All rights reserved. THX Surround EX-Dolby DIgital Surround EX is a joint development of Dolby Laboratories and THX Ltd. In a movie theater, film soundtracks that have been encoded with Dolby Digital Surround EX technology are able to reproduce an extra channel which has been added during the mixing of the program. This channel, called Surround Back, places sounds behind the listener in addition to the currently available front left, front center, front right, surround right, surround left and subwoofer channels. This additional channel provides the opportunity for more detailed imaging behind the listener and brings more depth, spacious ambience and sound localization than ever before. Movies that were created using the Dolby Digital Surround EX technology, when released into the home consumer market may exhibit wording to that effect on the packaging. A list of movies created using this technology can be found on the Dolby web site at www.dolby.com. A list of available DVD software titles encoded with this technology an be found at www.thx.com. Only receiver and controller products bearing the THX Surround EX logo, when in the THX Surround EX mode, faithfully reproduce this new technology in the home. This product may also engage the THX Surround EX mode during the playback of 5.1 channel material that is not Dolby Digital Surround EX eocnded. In such case, the information delivered to the Surround Back channel will be program dependent and may or may not be very pleasing depending on the particular soundtrack and the tastes of the individual listener. "SURROUND EX™" is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories. Used under authorization. DTS was introduced in 1994 to provide 5.1 channels of discrete digital audio into home theater systems. DTS brings you premium quality discrete multichannel digital sound to both movies and music. DTS is a multichannel sound system designed to create full range digital sound reproduction. The no compromise DTS digital process sets the standard of quality for cinema sound by delivering an exact copy of the studio master recordings to neighborhood and home theaters. Now, every moviegoer can hear the sound exactly as the moviemaker intended. DTS can be enjoyed in the home for either movies or music on of DVD's, LD's, and CD's. "DTS" and "DTS Digital Surround" are registered trademarks of Digital Theater Systems, Inc. The advantages of discrete multichannel systems over matrix are well known. But even in homes equipped for discrete multichannel, there remains a need for high-quality matrix decoding. This is because of the large library of matrix surround motion pictures available on disc and on VHS tape; and analog television broadcasts. The typical matrix decoder of today derives a center channel and a mono surround channel from two-channel matrix stereo material. It is better than a simple matrix in that it includes steering logic to improve separation, but because of its mono, band-limited surround it can be disappointing to users accustomed to discrete multichannel. Neo:6 offers several important improvements as follow, • Neo:6 provides up to six full-band channels of matrix decoding from stereo matrix material. Users with 6.1 and 5.1 systems will derive six and five separate channels, respectively, corresponding to the standard home-theater speaker layouts. • Neo:6 technology allows various sound elements within a channel or channels to be steered separately, and in a way which follows naturally from the original presentation. • Neo:6 offers a music mode to expand stereo nonmatrix recordings into the five- or sixchannel layout, in a way which does not diminish the subtlety and integrity of the original stereo recording. DTS-ES Extended Surround is a new multichannel digital signal format developed by Digital Theater Systems Inc. While offering high compatibility with the conventional DTS Digital Surround format, DTS-ES Extended Surround greatly improves the 360-degree surround impression and space expression thanks to further expanded surround signals. This format has been used professionally in movie theaters since 1999. In addition to the 5.1 surround channels (FL, FR, C, SL, SR and LFE), DTS-ES Extended Surround also offers the SB (Surround Back) channel for surround playback with a total of 6.1 channels. DTS-ES Extended Surround includes two signal formats with different surround signal recording methods, as DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 and DTS-ES Matrix 6.1. "DTS", "DTS-ES and "Neo:6" are trademarks of Digital Theater Systems, Inc. The stereo CD is a 16-bit medium with sampling at 44.1 kHz. Professional audio has been 20- or 24bit for some time, and there is increasing interest in higher sampling rates both for recording and for delivery into the home. Greater bit depths provide extended dynamic range. Higher sampling rates allow wider frequency response and the use of anti-alias and reconstruction filters with more favorable aural characteristics. DTS 96/24 allows for 5.1channel sound tracks to be encoded at a rate of 96kHz/24bits on DVDVideo titles. When DVD-video appeared, it became possible to deliver 24-bit, 96 kHz audio into the home, but only in two channels, and with serious limitations on picture. This capability has had little use. DVD-audio allows 96/24 in six channels, but a new player is needed, and only analog outputs are provided, necessitating the use of the D/A converters and analog electronics provided in the player. 2