Future Nakamichi Shockwafe 9.2.4 eARC customer (Questions)

[Nuklear92]

Greetings, I have never owned a Nakamichi soundbar before and I would like to get some details before I purchase one specifically regarding sound modes. Most soundbars in the market always bring a few preset sound modes, most popular ones are MOVIE, MUSIC, GAME and in rare cases a DIRECT/NATIVE MODE. I'm aware the in the Nakamichi Soundbars this is no exception, however what seems a bit more special in the Shockwafe series is in the DIRECT mode it has a few extra modes that no other soundbar that I know does bring and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Which are NATIVE, DOLBY SURROUND and DOLBY UPMIX, Native being the typical raw true Direct mode only outputting the source's true audio channel configuration without any sort of extra tricks going on. Dolby Surround supposedly adds some extra dolby tricks to output sound/surround to all speakers regardless of source material being 5.1/7.1 originally. Lastly Dolby Upmix which seems to be the less liked one a bit similar to Dolby Surround but sounds more artificial, don't have much info about that one in specific. NOW, the big question is which I still haven't seem much comparison on it. How does MOVIE and DIRECT - DOLBY SURROUND/DTS NEURAL X differs from each other? Which one seems to have a superior sound immersion when it comes to Movies, TV Shows, etc. As far as I know every soundbar manufacture seems to fine tune their "MOVIE" mode differently to have the most impactful yet immersive sound for movie, tv show playback. I haven't seem much people that owns the Shockwafe soundbars talk about this mode in specific, most customers seem to lean more towards Direct - Dolby Surround for Movies and TV Shows and ALL CH STEREO for Youtube and Music which that mode I would agree too since most content in Youtube is in Stereo and Music that's out of the question. So, quickly coming back to my previous question, What's really the difference between MOVIE mode and DIRECT - Dolby Surround/ DTS Neural X if anyone has can explain an recommend which should be the most adequate sound mode to choose for the best experience. Are all these modes make use of the SSE technology if not, please feel free to let me know which modes support this technology and which aren't.

Last question, by default most soundbars come with all speakers in a -10 to +10 or -6 to +6 level and 0 being the default volume and users can then manually turn up or down each speaker, subwoofer level to their desire. is this the same with the Nakamichi soundbar when first boot or this soundbar has presets already like for example "Center channel is +5, Surround sides/back are +3, Subwoofer by default is at +4" etc. or each sound mode brings different volume presets to all speakers?

[HeadNinja]

Hi Nuklear92,

Glad to hear you're interested in the eARC Ultra 9.2 SSE MAX model. I can clarify some information about the surround and stereo modes/ EQs and DSP effects built into the system.

Content "channel mapping" is determined by selection. This is determined by the content/ what surround or stereo mode is in use. For example, if the content is encoded in 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus and your soundbar is set to "Native" mode you will hear surround audio mapped as it was originally encoded. Right, Left, Center, Left Back and Right Back along with the LFE (subwoofer) channel. SSE Max may still have an effect on channel mapping (turn SSE Max to "OFF" if native audio is required for reference listening, use the + and - buttons to adjust.) This will output audio as it was originally encoded. If "upmixing" is required you can use the Dolby Upmix mode to send audio to the surround and effects channels. For additional surround effects processing you can use "Dolby Surr" in conjunction with SSE Max modes.

There are also modes for stereo "Downmixing" or stereo "Upmapping" these are available via the "Stereo/ All Channel" button. You can "Downmix" 5.1 or Dolby ATMOS 7.1.4 channel audio into just the soundbar/ subwoofers with "Stereo" mode. If you are listening to stereo audio and you with to directly upmix audio left/ right throughout your system you can do so using "All Channel Stereo" This can also simulate full surround sound with Stereo and 5.1 channel content. You may still want to use surround modes for Dolby ATMOS as this will retain the original 7 channel mix.

DTS audio formats will use a different channel mapping software due to not being supported with Dolby technology. Otherwise all Dolby and PCM audio formats will be upmixed with Dolby upmixing software.

EQs (Music, Movie, Game, Sports, News, DSP OFF) are separate adjustments for pre-set equalizations. Each one is fine tuned for the content specified. You can use any combination of a Surround/ Stereo mode and EQ. You can turn Nakamichi EQs off by pressing the "DSP OFF" button (DSP with a line through it.) I usually suggest toggling between each EQ and DSP off to hear the difference between the original audio and the enhancement.

As for volume adjustments, our system utilized a 0 - 10 scale for most adjustments. So if you adjust the side surround channels (using the SS+/- buttons) you can adjust between 0 and 10. Same for Bass (subwoofer) level, Surround Back (SB+/-), Center Channel (CR+/-) and Treble (TR+/-) Buttons. The default values are all around 5 - 7, so there is a level of adjustment for both increasing and decreasing volume levels if necessary.

Hopefully this explains the differences between modes and how the volume adjustment works with the eARC Ultra 9.2SSE Max soundbar.

[Nuklear92]

Hi Nuklear92,

Glad to hear you're interested in the eARC Ultra 9.2 SSE MAX model. I can clarify some information about the surround and stereo modes/ EQs and DSP effects built into the system.

Content "channel mapping" is determined by selection. This is determined by the content/ what surround or stereo mode is in use. For example, if the content is encoded in 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus and your soundbar is set to "Native" mode you will hear surround audio mapped as it was originally encoded. Right, Left, Center, Left Back and Right Back along with the LFE (subwoofer) channel. SSE Max may still have an effect on channel mapping (turn SSE Max to "OFF" if native audio is required for reference listening, use the + and - buttons to adjust.) This will output audio as it was originally encoded. If "upmixing" is required you can use the Dolby Upmix mode to send audio to the surround and effects channels. For additional surround effects processing you can use "Dolby Surr" in conjunction with SSE Max modes.

There are also modes for stereo "Downmixing" or stereo "Upmapping" these are available via the "Stereo/ All Channel" button. You can "Downmix" 5.1 or Dolby ATMOS 7.1.4 channel audio into just the soundbar/ subwoofers with "Stereo" mode. If you are listening to stereo audio and you with to directly upmix audio left/ right throughout your system you can do so using "All Channel Stereo" This can also simulate full surround sound with Stereo and 5.1 channel content. You may still want to use surround modes for Dolby ATMOS as this will retain the original 7 channel mix.

DTS audio formats will use a different channel mapping software due to not being supported with Dolby technology. Otherwise all Dolby and PCM audio formats will be upmixed with Dolby upmixing software.

EQs (Music, Movie, Game, Sports, News, DSP OFF) are separate adjustments for pre-set equalizations. Each one is fine tuned for the content specified. You can use any combination of a Surround/ Stereo mode and EQ. You can turn Nakamichi EQs off by pressing the "DSP OFF" button (DSP with a line through it.) I usually suggest toggling between each EQ and DSP off to hear the difference between the original audio and the enhancement.

As for volume adjustments, our system utilized a 0 - 10 scale for most adjustments. So if you adjust the side surround channels (using the SS+/- buttons) you can adjust between 0 and 10. Same for Bass (subwoofer) level, Surround Back (SB+/-), Center Channel (CR+/-) and Treble (TR+/-) Buttons. The default values are all around 5 - 7, so there is a level of adjustment for both increasing and decreasing volume levels if necessary.

Hopefully this explains the differences between modes and how the volume adjustment works with the eARC Ultra 9.2SSE Max soundbar.

Thanks for the detailed info, I appreciate it! I’ll definitely have to dig around all these settings and see what works best for my scenario.

One last question, does decreasing the volume level on the subs from the Default affect the subwoofer’s ability to play the lower Hz. For example on typical subwoofers some manufacturers says “rated at 28Hz at -3/+3 dB from a gain knob” guessing if you turn the gain lower than -3 the tuned frequency isn’t played or reduced in volume substantially. Is this Subwoofer volume level the same as if you decrease the volume of it too much you lose on the “20Hz” tuned frequency or this is totally different and even if you turn down the subs let’s say to 3 or less it can still play the 20Hz notes? 🤔

[HeadNinja]

Honestly that may be a question for our acoustic engineer, I can reach out them him and see if he knows the answer. I would figure this is something that effects the overall performance of the system below a certain volume level, but I don't believe it would drastically effect low frequency performance with the woofers provided. Acoustic aspects may also effect performance, so there are a few different factors that come into play when it comes to performance. The good news is dual subwoofers will perform better than a single subwoofer in most conditions. So achieving the desired low frequency output should be possible.