■Re-Equalization
The tonal balance of a film soundtrack will be excessively bright and harsh when played back over audio equipment in the home because film soundtracks were designed to be played back in large movie theatres using very different professional equipment.
■Adaptive Decorrelation
In a movie theatre, a large number of surround speakers help create an enveloping surround sound experience, but in a home theatre 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 theatre.
■Timbre Matching
The human ear changes our perception of a sound depending on the direction from which the sound is coming. In a movie theatre, there is an array of surround speakers so that the surround information is all around you. In a home theatre, you use only two speakers located to the side of your head. 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.
■BGC (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. “Bndry Gain Comp” can be selected by setting “THX Ultra2 SWFR” to “Yes” in “THX Set” of “Manual Setup”.
■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), be sure to go to the “THX Set” screen and choose the setting that most closely corresponds to the speaker spacing, which will
ASA is used in three modes; THX Ultra2 Cinema, THX Ultra2 Music and THX Ultra2 Games.
■Dialogue normalization
Dialogue Normalization (Dial Norm) is a feature of Dolby Digital, which is used to keep the programs at the same average listening level so the user does not have to change the volume control between Dolby Digital programs.
When playing back software which has been encoded in Dolby Digital, sometimes you may see a brief message in the front panel display which will read “Dial Norm X dB” (X being a numeric value). The display is showing how the program level relates with THX calibration level. If you want to play the program at calibrated theatrical levels, you may wish to adjust the volume. For example, if you see the following message: “Dial Norm + 4 dB” in the front panel display, to keep the overall output level at THX calibrated loudness, just turn down the volume control by 4 dB. However, unlike a movie theater where the playback loudness is preset, you can choose your preferred volume setting for best enjoyment.
Glossary
Sound field program information
■Elements of a sound field
What really creates the rich, full tones of a live instrument are the multiple reflections from the walls of the room. In addition to making the sound live, these reflections enable us to tell where the player is situated as well as the size and shape of the room in which we are sitting.
There are two distinct types of sound reflections that combine to make up the sound field in addition to the direct sound coming straight to our ears from the player’s instrument.
Early reflections
Reflected sounds reach our ears extremely rapidly (50 ms to 100 ms after the direct sound), after reflecting from one surface only (for example, from a wall or the ceiling). Early reflections actually add clarity to the direct sound.
Reverberations
These are caused by reflections from more than one surface (for example, from the walls, and the ceiling) so numerous that they merge together to form a continuous sonic afterglow. They are
Direct sound, early reflections and subsequent reverberations taken together help us to determine the subjective size and shape of the room, and it is this information that the digital sound field processor reproduces in order to create sound fields.
If you could create the appropriate early reflections and subsequent reverberations in your listening room, you would be able to create your own listening environment. The acoustics in your room could be changed to those of a concert hall, a dance floor, or a room with virtually any size at all. This ability to create sound fields at will is exactly what Yamaha has done with the digital sound field processor.
■CINEMA DSP
Since the Dolby Surround and DTS systems were originally designed for use in movie theaters, their effect is best felt in a theater having many speakers designed for acoustic effects. Since home conditions, such as room size, wall material, number of speakers, and so on, can differ so widely, it is inevitable that there are differences in the sound heard. Based on a wealth of actually measured data, Yamaha CINEMA DSP provides the audiovisual experience of a movie theater in the listening room of your own home by using the Yamaha original sound field technology combined with various digital audio systems.
■CINEMA DSP HD³
The actually measured sound field data contain the information of the height of the sound images. CINEMA DSP HD³ feature achieves the reproduction of the accurate height of the sound images so that it creates the accurate and intensive stereoscopic sound fields in a listening room.
■SILENT CINEMA
Yamaha has developed a natural, realistic sound effect DSP algorithm for headphones. Parameters for headphones have been set for each sound field so that accurate representations of all the sound field programs can be enjoyed on headphones.
■Virtual CINEMA DSP
Yamaha has developed a Virtual CINEMA DSP algorithm that allows you to enjoy DSP sound field surround effects even without any surround speakers by using virtual surround speakers. It is even possible to enjoy Virtual CINEMA DSP using a minimal
■Compressed Music Enhancer
The Compressed Music Enhancer feature of this unit enhances your listening experience by regenerating the missing harmonics in a compression artifact. As a result, flattened complexity due to the loss of
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