Pioneer SC-LX85 - Manual (Page 109)

109 En
14 Additional information
THX Cinema processing
THX is an exclusive set of standards and tech-
nologies established by THX Ltd. THX grew from
George Lucas’ personal desire to make your
experience of the film soundtrack, in both movie
theatres and in your home theatre, as faith-
ful as possible to what the director intended.
Movie soundtracks are mixed in special
movie theatres called dubbing stages and are
designed to be played back in movie theatres
with similar equipment and conditions. This
same soundtrack is then transferred directly
onto Laserdisc, VHS tape, DVD, etc., and is
not changed for playback in a small home
theatre environment. THX engineers developed
patented technologies to accurately translate
the sound from the movie theatre environment
into the home, correcting the tonal and spatial
errors that occur. On this product, when the
THX indicator is on, THX features are automati-
cally added in Cinema modes (e.g. THX Cinema,
THX Surround EX).
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 theaters using very different pro-
fessional equipment. Re-Equalization restores
the correct tonal balance for watching a movie
soundtrack in a small home environment.
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 sur-
round 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 sur-
round 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 Ultra2/Select2 Plus
Before any home theatre component can
be THX Ultra2/Select2 Plus 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/Select2 Plus logo, which is your
guarantee that the Home Theatre products you
purchase will give you superb performance for
many years to come. THX Ultra2/Select2 Plus
requirements cover every aspect of the product
including pre-amplifier and power 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 http://
www.dolby.com.
Only amplifier 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 infor-
mation 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.
Boundary Gain Compensation TM
Depending on the listener’s and the subwoof-
er’s position, the listener may experience an
excessive bass effect. This feature compensates
for excessive bass resulting from a boundary
gain effect. This feature is designed to operate
when used with a subwoofer certified to THX
Ultra2/Select2
TM specifications.
THX Loudness Plus Description
THX Loudness Plus is a new volume control
technology featured in THX Ultra2 Plus
TM and
THX Select2 Plus TM Certified amplifiers. With
THX Loudness Plus, home theater audiences
can now experience the rich details in a sur-
round mix at any volume level. A consequence
of turning the volume below Reference Level is
that certain sound elements can be lost or per-
ceived differently by the listener. THX Loudness
Plus compensates for the tonal and spatial
shifts that occur when the volume is reduced
by intelligently adjusting ambient surround
channel levels and frequency response. This
enables users to experience the true impact of
soundtracks regardless of the volume setting.
THX Loudness Plus is automatically applied
when listening in any THX listening mode. The
new THX Cinema, THX Music, and THX Games
modes are tailored to apply the proper THX
Loudness Plus settings for each type of content.
About iPod
“Made for iPod,” “Made for iPhone,” and “Made
for iPad” mean that an electronic accessory
has been designed to connect specifically to
iPod, iPhone, or iPad, respectively, and has
been certified by the developer to meet Apple