Timbre Matching™:

The human ear changes our perception of a sound depending on the direction from which the sound is coming. In a movie theater, there is an array of surround speakers so that the surround information is all around you. In a home theater, only two speakers located to the side of your head are used. The Timbre Matching feature filters the information going to the surround speakers so that 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™:

In a movie theater, a large number of surround speakers help create an enveloping surround sound experience, while in a home theater there are usually only two speakers. This can make the surround speakers sound like headphones that lack spaciousness and envelopment. The surround sounds will also collapse into the closest speaker as you move away from the middle seating position. 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 speakers—the same spacious surround experience as in a movie theater.

THX Ultra2™:

Before any home theater component can be THX Ultra2 certified, it must incorporate all the features above and also pass a rigorous series of quality and performance tests. Only then can a product feature the THX Ultra2 logo, which is your guarantee that the Home Theater products you purchase will give you superb performance for many years to come. THX Ultra2 requirements cover every aspect of the product including power amplifier performance, pre-amplifier performance and operation, as well as hundreds of other parameters in both the digital and analog domain.

In addition to improvements to the power amplifier with respect to previous THX Ultra standards, three surround modes have been added: the THX Ultra2 Cinema mode, THX Music Mode and THX Games Mode.

THX Ultra2 Cinema:

THX Ultra2 Cinema mode plays 5.1 movies using all 8 speakers giving you the best possible movie watching experience. In this mode, new THX processing blends the side surround speakers and back surround speakers providing the optimal mix of ambient and directional surround sounds.

DTS-ES (Matrix and 6.1 Discrete) and Dolby Digital Surround EX encoded soundtracks will be automatically detected in Ultra2 Cinema mode if the appropriate flag has been encoded.

Some Dolby Digital Surround EX soundtracks are missing the digital flag that allows automatic switching. If you know that the movie that you are watching is encoded in Surround EX, you can manually select the THX Surround EX playback mode, otherwise THX Ultra2 Cinema mode will apply processing to provide optimum replay.

Additional Information

THX Music Mode:

For the replay of 5.1 multi-channel music the THX Music Mode should be selected. In this mode new THX processing is applied to the surround channels of all 5.1 encoded music sources such as DTS and Dolby Digital to provide a wide stable rear soundstage.

THX Games Mode:

For the replay of stereo and multi-channel game audio the THX Games Mode should be selected. In this mode THX ASA processing is applied to the surround channels of all 5.1 and

2.0encoded game sources such as analog, PCM, DTS and Dolby Digital. This accurately places all game audio surround information, providing a full 360 degree playback environment. THX Games Mode is unique as it gives you a smooth transition of audio in all points of the surround field.

ASA (Advanced Speaker Array):

ASA is a proprietary THX technology which processes the sound fed to 2 side and 2 back surround 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 THX Audio Set-up screen and choose the setting that most closely corresponds to the speaker spacing, which will re-optimize the surround sound-field.

ASA is used in three new modes; THX Ultra2 Cinema, THX Music Mode and THX Games Mode.

Boundary Gain Compensation:

If your chosen listening room layout (for practical or aesthetic reasons) results in the 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 and controllers 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 and Re-EQ, THX Timbre Matching, THX Adaptive Decorrelation, and THX Advanced Speaker Array are trademarks of THX Ltd. THX may be registered in some jurisdictions. All rights reserved.

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