M-Audio Sonica Theater, User Manual

Page 1: ... USB Jack 16 Speaker Output Jacks 16 Line Input Jack 17 Explanation of Surround Formats 18 Sonica Theater Control Panel 20 Speaker Setup Tab 22 Output Mixer Tab 23 Surround Sound Tab 24 Input Other Tab 25 About Tab 26 Sonica Theater Applications 26 DVD Playback 26 Music Playback 27 Gaming 28 Recording 28 Troubleshooting 29 Technical Specifications 30 Warranty Information 32 Sonica Theater User Gui...

Page 2: ... supporting professional two channel 24 bit 96kHz recording and playback 97dB Dynamic Range typical A weighted 60 dB input 97dB Signal to Noise Ratio typical A weighted and 87dB THD N typical Supports Dolby Digital 5 1 AC3 Dolby Pro Logic DTS and other encoded multi channel formats SRS TruSurround XT technology delivers 5 1 virtual surround sound over stereo speakers Deep Bass Enhancement and Dial...

Page 3: ...mmended 700 MHz Pentium with MMX 128MB RAM DVD ROM drive player applications for Dolby Digital playback Available USB 1 1 Port Windows 2000 or XP Apple Macintosh Minimum Required Apple Macintosh G3 G4 iBook or PowerBook with available built in USB port 64MB RAM CD ROM Drive Mac OS 9 2 2 or later or Mac OS X version 10 1 or later Recommended Apple Macintosh G4 iBook or PowerBook with available buil...

Page 4: ...S Please skip to your computer s operating system in this section and follow those instructions The Sonica Theater s driver software which includes SRS Circle Surround II and TruSurround XT will load during this installation You will also want to install the DVD playback software provided on the additional included CDs Your Sonica Theater uses a standard USB cable which is supplied with the unit B...

Page 5: ...r Installer exe program 3 The SonicaTheater install screen will appear Click Next to continue 4 On the next screen that appears click Continue The CD performance enhancements page will then appear Click Next 5 The installation program will inform you of a successful hardware installation Click Next 5 ...

Page 6: ...ter your Sonica Theater has been connected and your computer has finished restarting Windows will tell you that your hardware has not passed Windows Logo testing Click Continue to complete the installation process Windows 2000 1 Place the Sonica Theater Software CD into your CD ROM Drive 2 Launch the Sonica Theater Installer exe program 3 The SonicaTheater install screen will appear Click Next to ...

Page 7: ...ater to your computer refer to the Hardware Installation section of this manual for instructions 7 After your computer restarts you will be prompted with a note about Digital Signature not found Click Yes 8 In the final screen Windows will ask you to restart your computer Click Finish then restart your computer to complete the installation process 7 ...

Page 8: ...ica Theater Installer exe program 3 The SonicaTheater install screen will appear Click Next to continue 4 A screen appears that displays checked boxes for Digital Audio and DMA transfer Click Next 5 The installation program will inform you of a successful hardware installation Click Next 8 ...

Page 9: ...mputer refer to the Hardware Installation section of this manual for instructions 8 After your Sonica Theater has been connected and your computer has finished restarting installation will have been completed Windows 98SE 1 Insert the SonicTheater CD into your CD ROM drive and double click on the file named Sonica Theater Installer exe 2 Close all running applications as directed by the first scre...

Page 10: ...playback need to be set in your operating system Leave these boxes checked and click Next 4 The next screen shows that the drivers have been successfully installed Click Next 5 Windows will now tell you that your computer needs to be restarted Make sure that the Yes box is checked and click Finish 10 ...

Page 11: ...ware Installation section of this manual for instructions Click Next in the screen that will appears after this connection is made 7 Make sure Search for the best driver for your device Recommended is selected and click Next to continue 8 None of the option boxes in the next screen need to be selected Click Next to continue 11 ...

Page 12: ...t to continue 11 Windows now will inform you that driver installation has been completed Click Finish to complete the installation process You should now be able to find in your taskbar which displays a little black M The existence of this button confirms that installation has been completed and the button also serves as a shortcut to the Sonica Theater control panel 12 ...

Page 13: ... Continue at the M Powered Screen 4 Read the Instructions for Using M Audio SonicaTheater Click Continue 5 Select your install location or simply choose the OS 9 boot drive which is the default Click Install to continue 6 Installation requires a restart of the computer Click Continue to restart 7 The next prompt gives a similar message Click Restart to reboot the computer 8 Plug the Sonica Theater...

Page 14: ...lick Upgrade to continue 10 When prompted click Continue Installation 11 When prompted click Restart to finish the installation 12 After the computer has restarted plug the Sonica Theater into your computer s USB Port 13 Go to System Preferences in the Apple Menu Select the Sound preference panel and click the Output tab Select M Audio Sonica Theater to choose the Sonica Theater as your default ou...

Page 15: ...ehind you as you are looking at your computer monitor 4 Center Subwoofer Jack orange This speaker output connects to the Center and Subwoofer speakers The Center channel should be directly above or below your monitor and the subwoofer can go just about anywhere you have room 5 Surround L R Jack black This speaker output should be connected to the Surround Left and Right speakers They should be loc...

Page 16: ...ers or the inputs on a surround sound receiver These jacks are designed to combine two speaker outputs into one jack saving on space and simplifying installation for example the Center Subwoofer output is actually the output for both the Center and Subwoofer channels Most multimedia speakers use 1 8 stereo input jacks If your speaker or receiver jacks are of the RCA type instead you can purchase a...

Page 17: ... Computer Monitor are shielded speakers If your monitor s image begins to become discolored in one of the corners or otherwise appears distorted move the speaker further away to avoid damage to your monitor Line Input Jack The Sonica Theater has a stereo line input This input allows you to record CDs videos instruments or virtually anything else with audiophile quality 96kHz 24 bit sampling You ca...

Page 18: ...s soundtrack can be expanded to 7 1 channel playback with a Dolby Pro Logic or Circle Surround II decoder It will play out of the left and right speakers without decoding Headphones are generally stereo or 2 0 devices 2 1 This is a stereo soundtrack with a separate subwoofer Sometimes this soundtrack can be expanded to surround playback with a Dolby Pro Logic or Circle Surround decoder It will pla...

Page 19: ...n additional point one signal gets sent to the subwoofer in all of the following formats called 1 because it only uses up 1 10th of the data of the other channels 5 0 This signal is the same as 5 1 description following only without the subwoofer channel 5 1 This is how most current DVDs are released Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks can have up to 5 1 channels This signal plays back from the left...

Page 20: ...lity of playing back content encoded with 7 1 discrete channels of audio You need specialized software to play back surround audio formats above two channels Much of this software is included in the drivers or the software bundle for SonicaTheater See the installation CD that came with your Sonica Theater for more information or check the M Audio website Sonica Theater Control Panel Once setup is ...

Page 21: ...r models such as the M Audio BX Series and Klipsch Promedia 5 1 speakers Click and hold on this menu to see if your speaker models are included in the list for the recommended settings for your speakers The Current Speaker Set pulldown menu also allows you to set the number of output channels such as stereo 5 1 6 1 or 7 1 It s important for this control to reflect the actual number of speakers you...

Page 22: ...ater Control Panel incorporates the Bass Management system to get the best sonic performance from your speakers This means that if you have large monitor speakers the Sonica Theater will output the full frequency range that the speakers are capable of handling Conversely if you have small cube speakers they probably can t reproduce the strong bass found in many DVD soundtracks so the Sonica Theate...

Page 23: ...aker s location and volume relative to other speakers Output Mixer Tab This tab provides level controls for each of the speaker outputs on the Sonica Theater Use these controls to change the balance between speakers in your system Level Move the level fader up or down to change the volume of any of the eight speaker outputs For proper DVD playback each of the surround speakers should play back at ...

Page 24: ... appear if your Current Speaker Set is set to three or more channels SRS TruSurround XT Enable This control turns on the TruSurround XT feature TruSurround XT virtually places individual surround channels where they are supposed to be as though you have speakers all around you Use this feature to turn 5 1 or 6 1 multi channel sources such as Dolby Digital or DTS encoded DVDs into virtual surround ...

Page 25: ... Input Other tab controls the input levels and sampling frequency of the SonicaTheater You don t need to worry about the settings on this page unless you re recording audio with the Sonica Theater Link Stereo Input Levels When you check this box the left and right input levels will always follow each other Left Right Input Level These controls set the input level for the Sonica Theater s inputs Wa...

Page 26: ... Line Input jack is routed directly to the Front Left and Right outputs This feature allows you to hear exactly what is going to be recorded both before recording is begun and during the actual recording process Many recording programs also have this feature which may be labeled Auto Input Monitoring or something similar If your recording application has Input Monitoring enabled you should uncheck...

Page 27: ... movie see the previous section for details Digital Out When you have the Sonica Theater s digital output connected to the digital input of a surround sound receiver choose this setting to send the encoded surround signal Dolby Digital DTS to the receiver This selection is called Use S PDIF in WinDVD 4 NOTE Macintosh OS 9 will not allow you to send a digitally encoded surround signal such as Dolby...

Page 28: ...und II Select the Cinema mode for game playback For more information on the Sonica Theater control panel check the previous section If you find that your game slows down when Circle Surround II is turned on you may want to turn off some of the graphic details or reduce the screen resolution to speed things up Recording The Sonica Theater includes a pair of audio inputs for recording You can set th...

Page 29: ...eater to work at all or if worked for awhile and then stopped working altogether reinstall the driver software If the unit stopped working after you installed a new program or system software update check the M Audio website for more recently updated drivers If a major system software update that has been recently released you may need to search for beta version software drivers which provide incr...

Page 30: ...e In Dynamic Range 98 dB typical A weighted 60 dB input Signal to Noise Ratio 98 dB typical A weighted THD 87 dB typical Sampling Frequencies Hz 11025 22050 32000 44100 48000 88200 96000 Driver Features USB Audio playback using the following input output formats 24 bit Linear PCM 16 bit Linear PCM 16 bit AC 3 output over S PDIF not available in Mac OS 9 SRS Circle Surround II processing SRS TruSur...

Page 31: ... Circle Surround II enabled Pentium III 800 MHz with 256 MB RAM running Windows 98SE Windows ME Windows 2000 or Windows XP or Mac G4 800 MHz with native USB support and 256 MB RAM running Mac OS 9 1 or OS X 31 ...

Page 32: ...n the event that M AUDIO determines that the product requires repair because of user misuse or regular wear it will assess a fair repair or replacement fee The customer will have the option to pay this fee and have the unit repaired and returned or not pay this fee and have the unit returned un repaired The remedy for breach of this limited warranty shall not include any other damages M AUDIO will...