Operate

Mono Surround

Surround Off

Mono

The Operate Menu

MUTE

LEVEL

DISPLAY

PREF

VOLUME

DISPLAY

VOLUME

SPEED

SETUP:

UNLOCKED

off mode (e.g., two-channel stereo). You may find that increasing the level of the rear speakers is necessary in order to bring what little ambience is in a “dry” re- cording up to a more enjoyable level.

The mono surround mode can provide a sense of spaciousness and size to monophonic program material such as some historical recordings and movie clas- sics such as Casablanca or The Wizard of Oz. The mono surround mode makes no effort to “electronically reprocess to simulate stereo” (a process which almost always causes more harm than good). Instead, it uses sophisticated steering tech- niques to create a sense of space in what would otherwise be a largely dimen- sionless soundfield. It is particularly helpful when viewing mono program mate- rial on a big screen, where a tiny mono image would simply sound wrong in contrast to the big picture.

The surround off mode is intended for music reproduction without any form of surround enhancement. In this mode, the Left and Right speakers are active along with the subwoofer(s), and reproduce the input without any processing other than the electronic crossover needed for the subs.

The mono mode sums the incoming Left and Right signals. The result is sent to the center channel speaker, as well as the subwoofer(s). This mode is especially useful for older, classic films or historical recordings which have noisy mono soundtracks. Since much of the noise is likely to be random in phase, significant noise cancellation can often be achieved by playing these mono sources in a true mono mode.

Those settings for which there is no “right” or “wrong” but which are purely a matter of user preference are contained in the operate menu (accessed from out- side the menu system by pressing menu on your remote control twice). The op- erate menu is organized as shown at left, and is detailed below:

•mute level — the magnitude of volume reduction introduced by pressing the mute key is user-definable from -5 to -110 in increments of 5 (-2.5 dB to -55 dB in 2.5 dB increments). The factory preset is for -40 (-20 dB).

•display pref — the display preferences subheading groups together several items which control the appearance of the on screen displays presented by the PAV during use. We will cover to this menu item in detail on the next page.

•volume display — gives you the option of displaying your volume settings on a scale of 0 (off) to 112 (extremely loud) or on a scale which is marked off either plus or minus around the calibrated reference level established during calibration. The former is called “absolute” while the latter is called “relative.” As an example, if your calibrated reference level is 91, the display would read 0 in the relative mode when it would read 91 in the absolute mode.

•volume speed — you may select either slow, medium, or fast response for the volume change when pressing and holding the volume +/– keys. In all cases, single taps of the volume keys result in single incremental steps in volume. The volume speed chosen affects the amount of time it takes to reach maximum speed while holding the volume +/– button down.

•setup: locked/unlocked — after having completed all setup adjustments, you may wish to lock your settings to prevent accidental changes. Doing so will disallow access to the main setup menu until unlocked.