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 re-optimize the surround sound-field.
ASA is used in two new modes–THX Ultra2 Cinema and THX MusicMode.
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.
DTS-ES (Matrix and 6.1 Discrete) and Dolby Digital Surround EX encoded
soundtracks will be automatically detected in Ultra2 Cinema mode if the
appropriate flag has been encoded.
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 multi-channel music, the THX MusicMode should be select-
ed. In this mode THX ASA processing is applied to the surround channels of
5.1 encoded music sources such at DTS, Dolby Digital and DVD-Audio to pro-
vide a wide, stable rear soundstage.
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 built-in AM/FM tuner. You can operate it via the remote
control’s Tuner page, which you can select from the Adjustments page. It
includes AM and FM buttons to select the reception band and, at the bottom
of the page, Up and Down tuning buttons for adjusting the station frequency.
The CH + and CH – buttons seek up and down to the next cleanly receivable
station. Ten presets are available for each band, selected with the buttons 1
through 10. Pressing and releasing a preset button will tune the radio to the
selected preset station. Pressing and holding a preset button for three sec-
onds will store the currently tuned station to that preset.
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
counter-clockwise to decrease the frequency. Press the knob a third time to
exit the Tuning mode. The Stage Manager will automatically revert to Normal
mode after 5 seconds of inactivity.
FRONT-PANEL DISPLAY AND
LIGHTING
You can turn the front-panel display and input selection LEDs on and off from
the remote control’s Display page, which is accessible from the Adjustments
page. You can turn on, turn off, or dim the front-panel lighting from the Display
page or from the Advanced Menu. (See "Advanced Menu.")
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
mode-specific settings to memory. Pressing the Mute button while in the level
settings menu will exit the menu without saving the changes.
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 bass-management system allows you to
choose from the following crossover frequencies: 25Hz to 120Hz in 5Hz incre-
ments.
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 (low-cut) filter to the output channel feeding that speaker. The bass
below the selected crossover frequency will be diverted to the subwoofer or, if
there is no subwoofer, to those speakers in the system designated as Large.
Once you have specified each set of speakers in your system as Large or
Small, pressing the OK or Setup button a second time exits the Speaker
Configuration menu. Then scroll down to the Crossover Setup menu to adjust
the crossover frequency. The Stage One will use the crossover frequency you
select for all speakers designated as Small and for the low-pass (high-cut)
crossover filter in the subwoofer output. If your subwoofer has a built-in
crossover, turn it off or, if that is not possible, set it to the highest frequency
available.
STAGE ONE
THX SURROUND PREAMPLIFIER
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