Madrigal Imaging AVP2 owner manual surround mode defaults

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surround mode defaults

before you use surround mode defaults

With the bass level manager, you are given an opportunity to establish a maxi- mum volume beyond which you do not want your subwoofers to go. If you are reasonably judicious with your main volume control during listening, you do not have to perform this adjustment at all. It is provided to give you the option of imposing an artificially low upper limit on bass transients (explosions, etc.), with- out affecting the perceived balance of bass at normal volumes.

1ENTER THE BASS LEVEL MANAGER MENU AND CHOOSE TEST SIGNAL: ON

You have the option of setting the bass level manager volume level arbi- trarily, without the benefit of listening to a test signal; or by listening to a low-frequency (bandwidth-limited) pink noise signal through the subwoofer(s). After experimenting with the bass level manager, you might want to reset it to its maximum setting (effectively disabling it). This would be best done without having to endure an extremely loud test signal (e.g., test signal: off).

When you choose to use the test signal by changing test signal: from off to on, the low frequency test signal will be sent to your subwoofer(s) at a modest volume. Regardless of the previous setting, the initial setting of the bass level manager when you enter its menu is a low value of 30. This is done to avoid a sudden, potentially speaker-endangering level of the test signal being sent to your subwoofer(s).

2RAISE THE VOLUME OF THIS TEST SIGNAL TO THE LOUDEST LEVEL YOU ARE LIKELY TO WANT TO HEAR FROM YOUR SUBWOOFERS, BEING CAREFUL NOT TO OVERDRIVE THEM; SAVE THIS SETTING

This is a potentially tricky area, since you don’t want to limit the perfor- mance of your subwoofers unnecessarily. At the same time, neither do you want to overdrive them during the calibration of the system! (One way out: have your dealer do the calibration, since he or she is more familiar with the capabilities of the speakers you purchased.) Save the setting by pressing enter, which also turns off the test signal and resets its next turn-on level to 30. (This last step on the AVP’s part ensures that the test signal always starts out at a modest volume.)

The AVP2 also allows you to customize its default configuration for each surround mode. Although the most accurate reproduction will be achieved by leaving these adjustments disabled, their inclusion does allow you the option of tailoring the sound of various surround modes to suit your individual taste. For example, if you find yourself turning up the rear speakers whenever you watch a movie, and then turning them back down to their normal, calibrated setting for music, you may want to set the defaults for Dolby Digital (e.g. AC-3) and stereo surround ac- cordingly, to automate those changes.

We recommend living with the AVP2 and using it in its calibrated settings for a while before changing these defaults. There is an ad- justment period people go through when their system is upgraded, during which it is difficult to make an accurate decision about sound quality. The best-known example of this is when someone first owns a high quality subwoofer: the tendency is to turn it up too loud initially (so one can “hear it”); as time goes by, most