ONKYO PR-RZ5100 Owner's Manual

Troubleshooting | Appendix

■ Orchestra

Suitable for classical or operatic music. This mode 

emphasizes the surround channels in order to widen the 

stereo image, and simulates the natural reverberation of a 

large hall.

■ Pure Audio

This mode reproduces the original sound more faithfully. 

The display and analog video circuit are turned off to 

provide purer sound.

•  Selecting this mode turns off the analog video circuitry, 

so the video signals input through the jacks other than 

the HDMI input jack cannot be displayed on the TV.

•  This cannot be selected when using the Multi-zone 

feature. Activating the Multi-zone feature while this 

mode is selected automatically switches the listening 

mode to Direct.

■ Stereo

In this mode, sound is output from the front left and right 

speakers and subwoofer.

■ Studio-Mix

Suitable for rock or pop music. Listening to music in this 

mode creates a lively sound field with a powerful acoustic 

image, like being at a club or rock concert.

■ T-D (Theater-Dimensional)

In this mode, you can enjoy a virtual playback of 

multichannel surround sound even with only two or three 

speakers. This works by controlling how sounds reach the 

listener's left and right ears.

■ THX

THX is a series of specifications for the accurate 

reproduction of movies propounded by the film director 

George Lucas. THX listening modes include the THX 

Cinema mode, and using technology such as THX 

Loudness Plus and Timbre Matching, the sound of a movie 

theater is reproduced accurately.

THX technology: 

A movie soundtrack is mixed in large-scale theater 

specially made for mixing that is called a dubbing stage 

on the assumption that the soundtrack is played in such 

theaters with similar equipment and conditions. These 

sound tracks are recorded as is, even when recording 

to a DVD-Video, for example, without making any 

modifications to suit a home theater. THX technology is 

able to reproduce the theater sound in a home theater 

environment by minimizing acoustic and spatial deviation.

THX Loudness Plus is a new volume control technology 

featured in THX Ultra2 Plus and THX Select2 Plus certified 

AV receivers. With THX Loudness Plus, home theater 

audiences can experience the rich details of surround 

sound at any volume level. If the volume is turned down 

below the reference level, elements of sound in a certain 

range are lost or the sound is perceived differently by 

audience. THX Loudness Plus compensates for the 

tonal and spatial shifts that occur when the volume level 

is reduced, by intelligently correcting the levels of the 

surround channels and their frequency response in the 

environment.

The speakers for the front channel are installed behind the 

screen in a movie theater. For this reason the high range 

is enhanced in the front channel of the sound track to take 

account of acoustic characteristics such as the necessity 

to penetrate the screen. Re-EQ adjusts soundtrack with 

enhanced high range to make it suitable for home theater.

The perception of the human ear differs depending on the 

direction of the sound. Movie theaters have many surround 

speakers installed so they are great at surrounding the 

viewer with natural sound, but home theaters have only 

two surround speakers installed. The Timbre Matching 

function filters the signals sent to the surround speakers 

and adjusts the tonal characteristics of front speakers and 

surround speakers to create smooth sound movement 

from front speakers to surround speakers.

Although movie theaters have many surround speakers 

to surround the room with sound, home theaters normally 

have only two surround speakers. Such two surround 

speakers give a headphone-like sound, not a broad and 

embracing surround sound. If the listener moves away 

from the middle of the surround speakers, sound from 

the surround speakers mixes with that from the near 

speakers and cannot be distinguished any more. Adaptive 

Decorrelation slightly changes the time axis and phase 

between the surround channels so you can enjoy the same 

kind of breadth of sound you can in a movie theater even 

with only two surround speakers.

ASA is a technology patented by THX to provide a broad 

surround sound experience by adjusting the side and back 

surround speaker sounds respectively. When installing the 

surround back speakers, first select the distance between 

the two surround back speakers in the THX Audio settings. 

This setting optimizes the surround sound environment.

THX listening modes: 

– THX Cinema: Use in a home theater environment 

for playing a soundtrack that was recorded with the 

intention of it being played in a movie theater or similar 

large area. In this mode, THX Loudness Plus is set to 

the theater level and Re-EQ, Timbre Matching, and 

Adaptive Decorrelation are all enabled.

– THX Games: Use for high-fidelity spatial reproduction of 

game sound. THX Loudness Plus is set to a level suited 

to the audio level of the game and Timbre Matching is 

enabled.

– THX Music : Use mainly for music sources that are 

clearly mastered to a much higher quality than movie 

audio. THX Loudness Plus is set to a level suited to the 

playback of music and Timbre Matching is enabled.

– THX U2 Cinema (THX Ultra2 Cinema): The THX Ultra2 

Cinema mode provides a high-quality surround sound 

experience by expanding movie sources recorded in 

5.1 ch for 7.1 ch playback. In this mode, the THX ASA 

processing technology gives smooth transition between 

side and back surround sounds creating the best