Yamaha NOT FOND DSP-Z11 - Manual (Page 131)

Glossary
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■ 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.
Re-Equalization restores the correct tonal balance for watching a movie soundtrack in a
small home environment.
■ 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 re-optimize the surround sound-
field.
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.
■ 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 non-directional and lessen the clarity of the direct sound.
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
two-speaker system that does not include a center speaker.
■ 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 high-frequency fidelity as well as lack of bass
due to the loss of low-frequency bass is compensated, providing improved performance
of the overall sound system.
Sound field program information