THX SURROUND PREAMPLIFIER
STAGE ONE
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 experi- ence. When you set up your home theater system using all eight speaker out- puts (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 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 Advanced Speaker Array Setup Menu and choose the setting that most closely corresponds to the speaker spacing, which will
ASA is used in two new
THX Ultra2 Cinema Mode
THX Ultra2 Cinema mode plays 5.1 movies using all 8 speakers giving you the best possible movie watching experience. In this mode, ASA processing blends the side surround speakers and back surround speakers providing the optimal mix of ambient and directional surround sounds.
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 ASA process- ing to provide optimum replay.
THX MusicMode
For the replay of
5.1encoded music sources such at DTS, Dolby Digital and
BGC (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 and controllers contain the BGC (Boundary Gain Compensation) feature to provide an improved bass balance. BGC can be selected by choosing ‘Yes’ from the ‘Boundary Gain Compensation’ section of the THX setup menu.
AM/FM TUNER
The Stage One has a
You can also operate the tuner from the Stage One’s front panel. When the Tuner is selected, use the Stage Manager to change stations. Press the Stage Manager to enter the tuning mode. The currently selected band will flash. Turn the knob clockwise to tune to FM, and counter clockwise to select AM. Press the knob a second time to allow the tuning frequency to be changed. Turn the knob clockwise to increase the frequency and turn it
FRONT-PANEL DISPLAY AND LIGHTING
You can turn the
ADVANCED FEATURES
Level Adjustments by Mode
Separate level adjustments are available for each mode. When you adjust level settings in the Setup Menu, they apply to every mode. However, you can customize the levels for particular modes by means of a separate option in the Setup Menu called Levels. For example, if you are in the Pro Logic II mode, pressing Advanced Setup on the remote, scrolling down, and selecting the Pro Logic II Levels will enable you to make changes specifically to the channel balances in the Pro Logic II mode. The channels used in a particular mode will be the only ones available for adjustment. For example, while in the Stereo mode, you can adjust only the front left, front right, and subwoofer lev- els. Pressing Advanced Setup again will exit the Levels menu and save the
Bass Management
The Stage One enables you to adjust the crossover settings to get the most out of your particular speakers. Separate settings are available for stereo lis- tening versus all other modes. The
To adjust the Bass Management settings, press the Setup button on the remote control to enter the Setup menu, scroll down to the Speaker Configuration menu, and hit the OK button to enter the Bass Management Selections menu. For each speaker, you are given a choice of Large, Small, or in some cases None. Selecting Small tells the Stage One to apply a high- pass
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