9 Operatio
Surround sound - explanatory notes
General information
The followi g sectio is ot co cer ed directly with the
operatio of your K6, but is rather i te ded to explai
some of the terms which arise i co ectio with sur-
rou d systems. It is i te ded to help you u dersta d a d
exploit the facilities a d capabilities of your K6 to the full.
As we all k ow, a ormal stereo recordi g has two cha -
els - left a d right. Whe stereo material is reproduced
i your liste i g room, the e tire sou d eve t takes place
o a imagi ary stage which covers the space betwee
the two loudspeakers.
The liste er is able to locate specific sou d eve ts over
the width of the stage; with good recordi gs there is also
a slight impressio of depth, i.e. behi d the speakers.
Nevertheless, ormal stereopho ic reproductio always
leaves the liste er isolated from the eve t.
As a result it is impossible to recreate the exciteme t of a
live atmosphere, as i a real co cert hall, si ce the
acoustics of the co cert hall are crucially i flue ced by
sou d reflectio s from the side a d back walls, the floor,
the ceili g, a d from objects i side the hall.
The reflected sou d comes from a y umber of direc-
tio s - ot just from the fro t. If a sou d eve t is to be
reproduced with real fidelity, it therefore follows that a
proportio of the sou d must ema ate from all directio s
i the room, that the 'reflectio s' must be timed accu-
rately, a d that they must be ge erated at a realistic
level.
Reproduci g televisio sou d via a co ve tio al stereo
system is problematic, because it is ofte impossible to
locate dialogue o the scree itself.
A further poi t is that exotic sou d effects have bee i
use i the ci ema si ce the 1950's, usi g proper multi-
cha el sou d systems. These effects are ofte crucial
to the overall impact of a film, but they ca ot be repro-
duced at home with a co ve tio al stereo sou d system.
Over the last few years surrou d tech ologies have bee
developed which make it possible to experie ce all these
effects withi the liste er's ow four walls, with the result
that a far greater simulatio of reality is possible tha
with co ve tio al stereo.
For a effective surrou d system we always recomme d
the i stallatio of a ce ter loudspeaker, which is i stalled
below or directly above the TV set. This loudspeaker
helps greatly i locati g particular sou d eve ts (espe-
cially dialogue) o the TV scree itself.
Types of reproduction
The K6 makes available a ra ge of differe t types of
reproductio : multi-channel mode, mono/stereo mode
a d sound fields.
The K6 'remembers' the setti g for each i put, a d re-
verts to the mode of operatio which was last used whe
you switch from o e i put to a other.
For the i ter al disc player the setti gs for CD a d DVD
are stored i depe de tly.
Multi-channel mode (surround)
Mode of operatio for the reproductio of multi-cha el
programmes (e.g. DOLBY Pro Logic, DOLBY DIGITAL,
dts, etc.).
A digital multi-cha el sig al is detected by its e codi g
method, a d the K6 automatically sets the correct loud-
speaker assig me t. The curre t reproductio mode is
displayed o the fro t pa el scree .
For analogue i put sig als the correct mode of opera-
tio ca ot be detected automatically by the decoder.
I this case the decoder always reverts to Dolby Pro
Logic decodi g. If the sig al is actually i a differe t form
(stereo, mo o - see below), the the mode must be set
ma ually i stead of surrou d mode.
olby Pro Logic II Surround
I this process several i depe de t sig al cha els are
recorded usi g two cha els a d a special e codi g
process. Si ce this process o ly requires two recordi g
cha els, it is compatible with ma y picture / sou d
systems which are already widely i use (CD, video
recorder, TV etc.).
The i formatio is decoded at playback time a d repro-
duced i the liste i g room via four (left, right, 2 x sur-
rou d) loudspeakers, although five speakers (with a
additio al fro t ce ter speaker) are preferable. Dolby
Surrou d e coded material is curre tly available mai ly
i the film a d video are a, recorded o video cassettes
a d DVDs, but ma y televisio programmes are ow
bei g produced a d tra smitted usi g Dolby Surrou d.
olby igital
Dolby Digital is a digital
multi-cha el surrou d
system which was
developed specifically for
spatial sou d reproductio
i co ectio with ci ema
films. The process utilises
five separate sou d
cha els: three fro t
cha els (left, ce ter,
right) a d two surrou d
cha els. A sixth
i depe de t bass effect
cha el is also prese t,
cateri g for low freque cy effects (LFE). That is why
such systems are said to offer 5.1 cha els.
I compariso with Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Digital pro-
vides two i depe de t surrou d cha els which provide
ge ui e spatial stereo sou d, offeri g the same realistic
stereo reproductio as provided by the fro t cha els.
The i tegral Dolby Digital decoder provides the mea s of
obtai i g a ge ui e digital Dolby stereo ci ema prese -
tatio i your ow livi g room. The discrete digital re-
cordi g process a d the five playback cha els guara -
tee a very wide dy amic ra ge a d accurate spatial
orie tatio .
The dy amic ra ge is the differe ce i volume betwee
the quietest a d loudest passages of a recordi g. The
origi al sou dtrack of a film ge erally features a ex-
tremely wide dy amic ra ge which the K6 ca reproduce
i full.
