AudioControl The Director D3400 Installer'S Manual Download Page 3

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TheDirector

Model D3400 • Model D4400

Installer’s Guide

Table of Contents

The Director Model D3400 • Model D4400

Cool and Different Features

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A Guided Tour

Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rear Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Making sense of the trigger ins and outs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Internet Connectivity and Control

Control using a browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Control and Queries via Telnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Operation without an Ethernet connection

. . . . . . . . . .

Hook-up Guide with System Diagrams

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

An Introduction to Acoustics and Equalizers

Room Acoustics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Benefits of Equalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Adjusting the Signal Processing

Equalizing the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Parametric and Graphic Equalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Subsonic and Tweeter Protection Filters . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Memories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

A Brazen Plug

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Table of Contents

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Summary of Contents for The Director D3400

Page 1: ...ency Digital Signal Processor Ethernet Interface Control Power Amplifier Professional Installer s Gratification Guide 22410 70th Avenue West Seattle WA 98043 USA 425 775 8461 Fax 425 778 3166 www audiocontrol com 2013 All rights reserved Making Good Sound Great ...

Page 2: ...me______________________________________ Date Installed___________________________________ Serial Number____________________________________ Ethernet MAC Address__________________________ IP Address Dynamic Static____________________ ...

Page 3: ...ectivity and Control Control using a browser 9 Control and Queries via Telnet 14 Operation without an Ethernet connection 17 Hook up Guide with System Diagrams 18 An Introduction to Acoustics and Equalizers Room Acoustics 22 Benefits of Equalization 23 Adjusting the Signal Processing Equalizing the System 24 Parametric and Graphic Equalization 25 Subsonic and Tweeter Protection Filters 26 Memories...

Page 4: ...dance 28 Amplifier bridging 29 In wall volume controls 29 Installation of multiple units of The Director 30 Level matching and gain controls 31 Sound level SPL in large areas and unique rooms 31 Troubleshooting 33 Warranty and Service Information 35 Block Diagram 37 Specifications 38 ...

Page 5: ...next section so please read on Since we build The Director Models in the AudioControl factories in the Northwest Rainforest outside of Seattle USA we can continually improve it and our other products Simi larly the AudioControl web site is regularly updated We encourage you to check our web site www audiocontrol com if something is not answered in this manual Of course you can always chat with us ...

Page 6: ... Up to 4 groups can be defined for control over Standby and Source Selection Import Export Exporting and Importing of the ampli fier s settings including EQ settings has been enabled Now you can configure your EQ settings as a template and apply these to each Director amplifier in your system A little refining of those settings for each amp and you will be in and out in no time Ethernet Control Vi...

Page 7: ... after thought with products from other companies Reliable and Rugged From the beefy rack mounts to the brawny transformer mounting The Director continues with AudioControl s legacy of building bulletproof product Pacific Northwest Heritage Hard to believe but we make this product in the USA We are very proud of that fact What is more important to you is the care we craft in at every step and the ...

Page 8: ...er component or two Front Level Display We think the front panel level display is way cool pretty and useful However if you want to turn it off we have provided a switch to do so Times Square Light Show Look at the rear of The Director and we forgive you if you think of Times Square in New York City There are indicator LEDs aplenty Not only for the speaker outputs but also for signal sense mono sw...

Page 9: ...f LED a million times on computer network cards One shows an active connection while the other LED flickers with the passage of data There is a duplicate set on the rear panel 4 Zone Status LEDs At the bottom of the columns are the channel status LEDs which are dual color and serve two purposes First they illuminate Blue when the correspond ing two channels are active and operating properly The se...

Page 10: ...For safety the chassis is always connected to earth ground regardless of the switch setting 5 Bus Inputs 1 and 2 These inputs provide two distribution busses for sending a common signal to multiple zones The bus input switch on each amplifier zone or the ethernet con trol selects which input is playing in that specific zone For Bus 1 the second pair of jacks can be used to daisy chain to another m...

Page 11: ...fier A Guided Tour Of The Director Model D3400 D4400 13 14 15 16 17 11 12 18 19 9 Master Power Switch This switch controls the main AC power Since The Director draws only a few watts during standby the only time you need to turn the master power off is if the system is going to be shut down for an extend ed time 0 Remote Power Control If you are not using the ethernet control you can remotely turn...

Page 12: ...nputs to Create Larger Zones Note Do not use any 12 volt power trigger if you are using ethernet control Guided Tour Trigger Ins Outs How Triggered LED Indicator Mini Jacks Powered Ethernet Ethernet Triggered Yes 12 volt mini plug input 12 v Trigger Active Yes unused jack Jumped Phoenix connector 12 v Trigger Active Yes Contact closure on Phoenix connector 12 v Trigger Active Yes 12 volt input on ...

Page 13: ...irectly connect to The Director ampli fier use an Ethernet cable and connect the two devices to gether The default IP address of The Director amplifier is 192 168 0 249 when a DHCP server is unavailable so in order to connect to The Director you will need to give your com puter a static IP address In your Windows based computer change your comput er s IP address to a static address of 192 168 0 x ...

Page 14: ...o The Director you will need to give your computer a static IP address Change your Mac s IP address to a static address of 192 168 0 x where x is a value between 1 through 248 or 250 through 254 If you don t know where to start to find out how to give your computer a static IP address please consult the Interwebs Be sure not to use a static IP address for your computer that is in use by another de...

Page 15: ...ies where each channel pair is getting it s input source Trim Trim the levels of the input in addition to the physi cal gain adjustments on the back of the amplifier Temperature Provides status of channel temperature Protection Shows channel protection status At the top of the page you can check the line voltage the global on off state of the unit good place to check if you aren t getting audio wh...

Page 16: ...usly Exported from another Director amplifier in the system or pre designed EQ curve templates Important Configuration options Server Gateway must be specified in order to access the SNTP time server likewise for your email alerts to function properly DNS must be specified as well for the SNTP and SMTP functions to work 8 8 8 8 Default or 8 8 4 4 are public DNS servers that the good folks at Googl...

Page 17: ... easier to use if you have some instrumentation audio analysis gear See the later section for more discussion on EQ Saving EQ memories and Import Export It is important to save your Signal Processing to a memory If you do not need to have multiple EQ memories for recall it is still necessary for the Signal Processing to be saved should the power go out When saving your Signal Processing the Save f...

Page 18: ...rately Control Via Telnet Commands To control The Director Model D3400 or D4400 in an automation network you will need a controller that can send and receive telnet commands and responses The command and response structures of the controls provided via telnet are in simple human ASCII language Power on is simply power 1 with a carriage return cr r or 0x0D to end the command string Feedback from Th...

Page 19: ...power 0 Main Power Off zero not O power 1 Main Power On mute_group 1 4 Turns groups 1 through 4 off unmute_group 1 4 Turns groups 1 through 4 on mute 1 8 Mute Zone s unmute 1 8 Unmute Zone s bus1_group 1 4 changes source to bus1 for groups 1 4 bus2_group 1 4 changes source to bus2 for groups 1 4 local_group 1 4 changes source to local for groups 1 4 bus1 1 8 Switch Zone s to Bus 1 bus2 1 8 Switch ...

Page 20: ...Returns a value for each zone where cool is 1 warm is 2 and hot is 3 power On is 1 and off is 0 zero acvoltage Responses are 1 is low 2 is normal and 3 is high protection For each zone the responses are 1 is normal 2 is muted 3 is protect and 4 is short circuit signalsense On is 1 and off is 0 zero timeout Number of seconds before inactive session terminated bypass Physical bypass switch en gaged ...

Page 21: ...annel pair 7 8 04 channel pair 9 10 05 channel pair 11 12 06 channel pair 13 14 07 channel pair 15 16 99 all zones i e global protection Operation Without An Ethernet Connection To operate The Director without an Ethernet connection in an emergency or while troubleshooting press in the Eth ernet Bypass button on the rear of the unit The indicator LED will glow red Now you can trigger the unit on a...

Page 22: ... 18 Hook Up Guide System Diagrams Using Bus Inputs to Create Larger Zones ...

Page 23: ...TheDirector Model D3400 Model D4400 Installer s Guide 19 Hook Up Guide System Diagrams Whole House System with Tuner Only Background Music ...

Page 24: ... 20 Hook Up Guide System Diagrams Multiple Unit System with Tuner Only Background Music Tuner Triggered on Daisy Chained Bus 1 ...

Page 25: ...TheDirector Model D3400 Model D4400 Installer s Guide 21 Hook Up Guide System Diagrams Using the Crossover Option ...

Page 26: ...ck sound waves bounce off walls ceilings and floors reflecting reinforc ing and canceling each other as shown in the figure above Since sound is energy the way it reflects depends upon the angle of the surface the type of material and the frequency of the sound wave Because your listening position is likely to be towards the back of the Free Field waves shown in the diagram you also get part of th...

Page 27: ...on of the speakers Benefits of Equalization Rarely is the room and room decor designed to get the most out of the audio system In fact almost always the op posite is the case where the speaker positions and sizes are dictated by some factors which are actually contrary to good sound This real world situation is where equalization can provide great benefits Speaker positions furniture and general r...

Page 28: ...Search for pink noise The sig nal is playing through The Director when the LED s level meter on front panel responds to the volume 5 Assuming you have wireless network access now grab your trusty real time analyzer RTA and go into the zone you wish to adjust 6 Place the microphone in the middle of the area of listening at the height of the typical listeners head 7 In general use the equalizer cont...

Page 29: ...e problems even though The Director s subsonic filter cuts frequencies be low your adjustment point But if your speakers can take it a mild boost will enhance bass instruments such as Fender bass kick drum floor toms timpani and double bass viols 150Hz High bass There s a lot of bass information at this frequency In fact most modern music is mixed to enhance this area of the frequency spectrum 150...

Page 30: ... speakers have frequency response limita tions For the best performance we want to operate speakers in their linear zone that is the frequen cies where their sound reproduction is not compro mised by mechanical limitations If you do operate speakers near or at their me chanical limits sound is compromised and parts of the speakers are stressed and in some cases heat up shortening its life In other...

Page 31: ...r pre amplifier with truly exceptional audio and video performance Some reviewers say there is none better AudioControl also has two five and seven chan nel power amplifiers to round out this theater system The audiophile sound quality of these amplifiers cool running Class H design and exclusive LightDrive protection systems say these amplifiers mean serious business Together these AudioControl h...

Page 32: ...er wire gauge and the length of the runs also affects the speaker impedance load presented to the amplifiers As you can see in this table below even fairly short speaker runs can have significant resistance if you use a smaller wire gauge This can be a benefit if you are parallel ing lots of speakers The wire itself acts as an impedance lim iter since the amplifier cannot see a speaker load lower ...

Page 33: ...00 is rated at 60 watts that is a conservative number and it can put out more power if only a few channels are driven In contrast to the conservative rating of The Director the wall volume control may be rated using favorable assumptions Also make sure the volume control power rating is continuous not peak The continuous rating is about one third of peak For The Director Model D4400 the answer is ...

Page 34: ...iamps current on the 12 volt output use a relay to prevent over loading The Director The Director itself only takes 1 milliamp to turn on What are the power requirements and BTU outputs of The Director There is more detailed information in the specifications section of this manual In general we feel a conservative but real life design criteria is 1 8th power This will be a quite loud listening lev...

Page 35: ...ier gain con trols on the rear panel Everyone wants to get the full power out of an amplifier However very rarely does the setting of the gain control restrict the power it just sets how much input voltage is needed to drive the amp fully What the gain controls do affect is the quality of the sound In general you want amplifier gain controls down e g 10 o clock and the levels coming from the pre a...

Page 36: ...re the listener is far from the speakers Typical in wall speakers are designed to be near the lis tener In common rooms with eight foot ceilings and other usual dimensions in wall speakers typically are not much more than eight feet from the listener In large mansions the game changes Twenty foot ceilings are normal and typi cal speakers are too far away to provide the client much SPL sound pressu...

Page 37: ...Power Fuse on the rear panel 2 Protection LED is Blue but none of the Zone Status LEDs are on a Defeat the Signal Sense circuit using the switch on the rear panel All of the Zone Status LEDs should turn on If they do not call the AudioControl factory b Verify Source unit is operating and playing c Adjust the Input Level control counter clockwise 3 Zone Status LED is Red a Check speaker leads for s...

Page 38: ...rom AC power wait two minutes then plug back in This should reset the unit b Something rather serious has happened inside The Director Call the AudioControl factory 6 Speaker Buzzing or Cracking at high volume a Reduce the equalizer boost in the 40 80 Hz range b Raise the subsonic filter frequency 7 There is no audio input signal but the Zone Status LED is still Blue a Check the Signal Sense defea...

Page 39: ...factory or B somebody authorized in writing by AudioControl to service the The Director If anyone other than A or B messes with The Director that voids your warranty 5 The warranty is also void if the serial number is altered or removed or if The Director has been used improperly Now that sounds like a big loophole but here is all we mean by it Unwarranted abuse is A physical damage don t use The ...

Page 40: ...g with The Director You d be surprised how many people forget this 3 A return street address No PO Boxes please 4 A daytime phone number in case our technician has a question about the problem you are having You re responsible for the freight charges to us but we ll pay the return freight back as long as the unit is under war ranty We match whatever shipping method you use to send it to us so if y...

Page 41: ...TheDirector Model D3400 Model D4400 Installer s Guide 37 Block Diagram ...

Page 42: ...0k Signal to Noise 95dB A wtd Ref Full Output Input Sensitivity Variable 0 1 Vrms Input Impedance 20 kilo ohms Crosstalk Greater than 80dB 1kHz AC Main Fuse Rating 10 amp Slo Blo AC Main Operational Voltage 95 130v Protection clipping short circuit thermal ultrasonic DC offset Stable into reactive or mismatched loads Weight 39 pounds 18 kg Dimensions 17 W x 16 D x 5 25 H Rack Mounting 3U high 19 B...

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Page 44: ...Rev B 22410 70th Avenue West Mountlake Terrace WA 98043 USA 425 775 8461 Fax 425 778 3166 e mail sound better audiocontrol com Visit us on the web at www audiocontrol com For Those Who Consider Perfection Possible ...

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