Sound Profiles

ML introduces a unique concept which they call a "Sound Profile". Simply put, a sound profile can be thought of as a macro which offers an easy way to override the current settings. As can be seen in the menu screen shot below, the level of customization offered here is quite extensive.

Among the many options offered, one is the ability to select the listening position. As was described in the setup section, one can define multiple listening locations, each with its distance and levels settings. One of these settings may correspond to the sweet spot, while another one might correspond to an off-center location where a reading chair might be situated. The sound profile provides an easy way to switch between these locations.

A sound profile also provides a way to associate different processing modes for different signals. For example, you might want to engage a synthesized surround mode for a stereo signal. Alternatively, you may want to down-mix a multi-channel signal or add THX processing to it. You might also want to use different surround modes depending on whether you are watching a movie or listening to music. Again, the choice might be different depending on the listening location. In case you are watching a movie, you can boost the subwoofer level via the level trim adjustments or enable/disable THX Re-EQ. If the movie is going to be seen late at night, you can engage Dolby Digital Compression.

Substantial overrides are also provided for the speaker configuration. For two channel music, you can reconfigure the crossover frequency from the front L/R speakers. You can configure them as full-range, have them run as full-range and also have the subwoofer reproduce the sub-50 Hz range (something we don't advocate unless you have the equipment to set this up correctly), or change the crossover frequency to the subwoofer. If for some reason you want to turn off the center and/or surround speakers, you can do that.

The signal that gets routed to the surround speakers can also be changed. "Surround Plus" makes a copy of the left and right surround speakers and re-directs them to the back left and right surrounds respectively with appropriate level adjustment. "Surround Redirect" shuts off the left and right surround speakers, re-directing the signal instead to the back left and right surrounds.

Both Dolby and DTS provide some adjustment options for their synthesized surround modes. Dolby Pro Logic II/IIx music modes provide "Center width", "Dimension" and "Panorama" adjustments. You can create two sound profiles, for example, with different settings. Different listening locations may benefit from slightly different settings.

Finally, three DC triggers are provided, and they can be used as desired with different sound profiles.

The capabilities here are extensive and you can, within reason, create a sound profile for each activity. There is no need to be stingy here, since you are allowed a total of twenty profiles!

HDMI Hiccups

I was eager to put the HDMI card through its paces by mating it with my Toshiba A1 HD DVD player. My first attempt to chain together the various pieces resulted in no audio and no video. Someone in this chain was being anti-social, refusing to do a proper hand-shake. It turned out that there was some incompatibility between the N^o 40 and my Optoma H79 projector. The projector connected directly to the HD DVD player or via a different processor displayed a picture. This handshake issue did not exist when I used the Denon 3930 DVD player. However, I did have to force the output color space on the DVD player to RGB. With the color space set to Auto, the colors were incorrect.

At this point I figured that I would give another projector a try. I was able to get the Optoma HD72 on loan from Darin who had recently completed its review. There were no handshake issues this time around with either player, however, the colors when playing back HD DVDs were not correct. I contacted ML customer support at this point and they were extremely helpful. The culprit turned out to be the firmware version for the HDMI card. Having had these issues and another glitch (mentioned earlier), ML decided to send me another unit.

The new unit came with the HDMI card pre-installed and had all the latest firmware. Now everyone was starting to speak the same language. Well almost! The colors were still not right when playing an HD DVD, but hitting the re-syncing button on the projector fixed this problem. Who was the culprit this time around? I connected the HD DVD player to the Optoma HD72 directly, and I saw the same problem. So the N^o 40 was not the offender. Pressing a button for a movie session was a minor inconvenience. At least there was a workaround.

Later in the review I received the JVC DLA-HD1 projector. With this projector there were no hiccups the first time around. Yeah! After a few times, an occasional warning message would show its face on the screen saying "Frequency of input signal is out of range". Luckily, this issue was less stubborn than the others, and occasional start/stop sequences or a reboot of the Toshiba player resolved the problem. I am inclined to lay the fault with the Toshiba player, but I could not determine this for a fact.

It is unfortunate that incompatibilities between different devices when using HDMI exist to this day. As you can see, there were other products that I used which were not interacting properly. The Toshiba player, for example, has gone through several firmware updates to improve compatibility. Certainly ML is doing their share by providing firmware updates. Kudos to them for that! What I do wonder, however, is how many installers simply revert back to the trusty component video route when they hit a roadblock using HDMI. That path we all know just works.

Go to Part VI.