GLOSSARY

■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.

■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.

■THX Select

Before any home theatre component can be THX Select 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 Select logo, which is your guarantee that the Home Theatre products you purchase will give you superb performance for many years to come. THX Select requirements cover every aspect of the product including power amplifier and pre-amplifier performance and operation, and hundreds of other parameters in both the digital and analog domain.

■THX Surround EX

THX Surround EX - Dolby Digital Surround EX is a joint development of Dolby Laboratories and the 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 can 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 encoded. 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.

■ITU-R

ITU-R is the radio communication sector of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). ITU-R recommends a standard speaker placement which is used in many critical listening rooms, especially for mastering purposes.

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