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 SR9600 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 SR9600 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 Ultra certified by Lucasfilm Ltd.
THX Ultra 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.
2
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 and Ultra 2 are trademarks or registered trademarks 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.
T h e T H X U l t r a 2 s p e c i f i c a t i o n p r o v i d e s uncompromised 7.1 channel playback of any multi- channel program, whether movie soundtracks or music over the widest possible seating area.
There are an additional two processing’s for THX Ultra2 as bellow.
A.S.A. (Advanced Speaker Array)
“ASA” is a proprietary THX technology which processes the sound fed to 2 surround and 2 surround back speakers to provide the optimal surround sound experience. When you set up your home theater system using all eight speaker outputs (Left, Center, Right, Surround Right, Surround Back Right, Surround Back Left, Surround Left and Subwoofer), placing the two Surround Back speakers close together facing the front of the room as shown in the diagram will provide the largest sweet spot. If for practical reasons you have to place the Surround Back speakers apart, you will need to go to the THX Audio Set-upscreen and choose the setting that most closely corresponds to the speaker distance, which will re-optimize the surround sound-field. ASA is used in two new surround modes; THX Ultra2 Cinema, THX Music Mode and THX Games mode.
B.G.C. (Boundary Gain Compensation)
If your chosen listening room layout (for practical or aesthetic reasons) results in most of the listeners being close to the rear wall, the resulting bass level can be sufficiently reinforced by the boundary that the overall sound quality becomes “boomy”. THX Ultra2 receivers contain the BGC (Boundary Gain Compensation) feature to provide an improved bass balance. BGC can be selected by choosing “THX Ultra2 Subwoofer-Yes” from the “Boundary Gain Compensation” section of the “THX Audio setup menu”.
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 six- channel layout, in a way which does not diminish the subtlety and integrity of the original stereo recording.
