TECHNICALLY SPEAKING continued
17
THX Ultra2
Before any home theatre component can be THX Ultra2 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 Ultra2 logo, which is your guarantee that the Home Theatre products
you purchase will give you superb performance for many years to come. THX Ultra2 requirements
cover every aspect of the product including 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
.
Only surround controller products bearing the THX Surround EX logo, when in the THX Surround
EX mode, faithfully reproduce this new technology in the home.
THX Surround EX operation
THX Surround EX will operate for any 5.1 channel source that has a Dolby Digital Surround EX auto
trigger flag in the digital signal.
Note:
THX Surround EX can only operate when the THX Cinema mode is ON and Surround Back
speakers are selected in the system set-up menu.
Bass Mixing
In the bass output setup menu page, you have the flexibility to choose how bass information is
distributed to your speakers only if you have large front left and right speakers and a subwoofer
as part of your home theatre speaker system.
By selecting Enhanced Bass or Ebass [as it is called on the Model 7100], you will send the bass fre-
quencies from the front left and right channels to the front left, right speakers AND the subwoofer.
When Ebass is not selected, bass frequencies from the front left and front right channels stay in the
front left and front right speakers and not sent to the subwoofer. Bass going to the subwoofer will
only come from the LFE channel and any of the channels with speakers that you have designated as
“Small.” This selection is preferred by THX. To decide which setting is best for your room, once you
have positioned all of your speakers, choose the option which gives you the most solid sounding bass.
ASA (Advanced Speaker Array)
ASA is a proprietary THX technology which processes the sound fed to two side and two
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) 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 want
to re-optimize the surround sound-field. Go to the THX Audio Set-up setup menu page and select
the setting that most closely corresponds to the speaker spacing.
ASA is used in the following three new modes; THX Ultra2 Cinema, THX MusicMode and THX
Games Mode.
