Focal DUAL MANAGER User Manual

We thank you for choosing Focal amplifiers for your Car Audio system and for sharing
our philosophy: “the Spirit of Sound”. This product offers the latest advances in
Focal amplifiers. In order to obtain the best results, we highly recommend you have
your new amplifier installed by your local Focal distributor. To maximise the use
all the functionalities of your amplifier and to fully enjoy its performance levels,
we recommend that you read the entire instructions in this booklet, as well as the
Focal Dual Monitor software manual. We recommend you keep the manuals for
future reference.

1. Introduction

The Dual Manager program has been designed to give you the entire control over a car audio system
comprising one Focal Dual Monitor amplifier, operating together with its remote controller.

dual manager User manual

Français page 19

Focal® is a trademark of Focal-JMlab® - www.focal-fr.com

2. Installation

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2.1. System requirements

To run the program you will need a PC with the following minimum configuration or specifications:

• Supported Windows OS

- Windows 98 with Microsoft Installer 2.0 (CD-ROM include last version of Installer)

- Windows ME

- Windows 2000

- Windows XP

• CPU

Minimum - 1GHz, recommended 2GHz and higher (this software makes intensive use of mathematics for DSP
calculations).

• Screen

Resolution: 1024x768 and higher
Colour depth: 16, 24, 32 Bits

• Memory

The program needs only 10MB of RAM. Any Windows OS with Microsoft recommended memory size is
acceptable. After installation of all additional programs Windows should allocate 10MB of physical memory
for the program to run without hard disk swapping activity.

• Hard disk free space

3MB in “Program Files” folder and 1 MB for Drive C:
Drive C: should be present.

2.2. Preparing the computer and installing the program

Load the CD-ROM provided with Focal Dual Monitor amplifier. Copy the content of the CD-ROM to the hard
disk, at an appropriate location.

To install the program, simply double click on the Set-up icon and follow the instructions.

If not already done, power up the Dual Monitor amplifier and connect the USB cable between the amplifier and
your computer. Wait a few seconds while the amplifier firmware is loading, when finished Windows will notify
you that a new hardware has been detected.

When prompted do NOT allow Windows to install the drivers for you. ALWAYS choose to install the drivers by
yourself. Windows 98, 2000 and XP will permit you to search for a driver. When asked to specify a location
browse the disk directory and select C:\\FOCAL USB DRIVER 1.
Install all drivers. Usually, you will need to install the drivers twice.

Note: If this program informs you about an old Windows Installer version, you must exit the program,
install a Windows Installer version 1.2 or above. Windows Installer 2.0 for Windows 98 is included on
the installation CD or it can be downloaded from the Microsoft website.

2. Installation

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2.3. Launching Dual Manager

At the end of the previous step, a new shortcut has been created with a Focal Dual Manager icon on the
computer desktop.

To launch the program simply double click on the icon.

If at this stage the amplifier is not connected or powered the following message will appear: “Amplifier is not
connected. Program will be started in demo mode”. This mode is intended to let you to play around and get
familiar with the various functions of the program without affecting the actual settings of the amplifier.
If the amplifier and its remote controller are connected, the computer takes control and the 4 green LEDS on
the controller come on.

When the program starts a temporary start-up window will be displayed, including some information on the
program release number. Towards the bottom of the window is a button labelled “Upgrade firmware”. This
facility allows you to upgrade the various routines contained in the amplifier itself.

For a few seconds the text displayed on the button appears in black, to indicate that this option can be
activated. The first time you launch the Dual Manager program, you may be prompted to upgrade the firmware
as it will check the compatibility between the current version of firmware and the program itself. In such a case,
do execute the firmware upgrade by clicking the upgrade button.

Once the upgrade has been completed, leave the program and start it over again.

If the firmware upgrade is not executed, after a few seconds the start-up window will disappear and the main
program window be displayed.

Note: For more information on firmware upgrade please refer to another section of the manual.

Load menu

Save menu

Preferences menu

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3. Title bar and menus

On the title bar is displayed a line of text which looks like the following:

Focal Dual Manager (Loaded Preset 1: No Name). Restricted user mode.

The left hand part is – obviously – the program name. The middle part, between brackets, indicates the last
loaded Preset number and name: more information on presets is given in a further paragraph. Finally the
right hand information describes the current status of the user mode: “restricted user mode” or “administrator
mode”. Underneath the title bar is the Menus bar, which contains three groups of functions “Load”, “Save”,
and “Preferences”.

3.1. Foreword on presets

Presets are sets of parameters that can be transferred between the amplifier internal non-volatile memory and
the computer. The amplifier memory can store 5 different presets which, when no computer is connected,
can be recalled by using the remote controller front buttons (numbered 1 to 5). Room for a 6th preset is
also provided: this additional Preset which will be referred to as Temporary Preset can only be recalled - and
stored - from the PC but is not accessible from the remote controller.

For more information please refer to the Dual Monitor User Manual.

When running Dual Manager, presets can be loaded from and saved to the amplifier. They can also be loaded
and saved as files on the hard disk.

3.2. Load menu

When clicking on Load a pull down menu is displayed enabling the following operations:

• Preset 1 to 5

When selecting one of the 5 presets the corresponding set of parameters will be transferred from the amplifier
to the computer. After a few seconds all the information displayed on the screen, including the graph of the
frequency response, will be updated to reflect all the parameters of the selected Preset.

• Temporary preset

This performs the same operation as above for the so-called Temporary Preset (see above).

• Load From file

This allows to recall a complete Preset previously saved as a file on the hard disk. Having clicked on this
task you can browse the disk to select the desired file (by default Dual Manager preset files have the .CFG
extension). After a few seconds all the information displayed on the screen will be updated accordingly.

Note: while the parameters imported from the file are displayed, the data are also transferred to the
amplifier and its actual settings simultaneously updated, with all the consequences it may have in
audio terms. As a general rule-except obviously in Demo mode - the information displayed on the
screen always matches the current amplifier status. On the other hand, the amplifier memory will not
be permanently modified until a Save Preset operation has been performed.

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3. Title bar and menus

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3.3. Save menu

When clicking on Save a pull down menu is displayed, enabling the following operations:

• Preset 1 to 5

When selecting one of the 5 Presets the current set of parameters, as displayed on the computer screen, will be
saved in one of the five dedicated memory areas in the amplifier.
Later on when the amplifier works in stand alone mode the Preset can be selected by pressing the corresponding
button number on the remote controller.

• Temporary Preset

This performs the same operation as above, except that once saved the Temporary Preset will not be accessible
from the remote controller when the amplifier works in stand alone mode.

• Save To File

This allows to store a complete Preset as a file on the hard disk for future use. Simply select the appropriate
location on the hard disk and enter a convenient file name.

3.4. Preferences menu

This menu gives the user control over two different facilities: User Mode management and Headroom.
Accordingly the pull-down menu that will appear when selecting Preferences contains the following options.

• Restricted user mode

In Restricted user mode, for the sake of simplified use some of the most advanced functionalities are not
accessible. In the next paragraphs it will be specified whenever Administrator mode is required.

• Administrator mode

This mode gives access to all the available parameters, allowing their modification without any restriction.
Entering a valid (case sensitive) password is required before administrator rights can be granted. The default,
factory set, password is simply Focal.

• Change Administrator’s password

Clicking on this option will open a dialog box, prompting you first to type the current password, then the new
password you want to authorise access to Administrator rights.

• Headroom

This parameter lets you set the digital attenuation you want to implement at the input of the processing section,
between -6 and -30dB in 6dB steps. The default value is 6dB, which is relevant in most situations. Increasing
the headroom can be required to avoid digital overflow, if you plan to use heavy boosts in the equalizing
sections. As a rule of thumb, the optimum value should roughly match the maximum amplitude boost that you
can see in your frequency response.
Having too much headroom however will tend to waste the resolution of the A/D converter and result in
degraded signal-to-noise ratio.