News

Velodyne's SMS-1 Extends Digital Drive Bass Management Capability to any Subwoofer (13/12/2005)

Leveraging their patent-pending bass management system previously found only in the Digital Drive(r) line of subwoofers, Velodyne Acoustics, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of powered subwoofers for home-theater and consumer audio, has recently introduced the Subwoofer Management System (SMS(tm)-1) as a stand-alone unit for use with any subwoofer.

The SMS-1, configured as an outboard processor in a one-inch high chassis, offers all the features of the DSP-controlled Digital Drive room correction software and includes all the tools necessary to maximize the performance of any subwoofer. The SMS-1 comes with a full-featured remote control, a calibrated high precision microphone, mic stand and cables.

"It's the subwoofer's job to integrate into the user's system, not the other way around," said Bruce Hall, president of Velodyne. "There are many factors that affect this integration from room size and shape, to where the sub is positioned, to how the main speakers perform, to the interaction between the mains and the sub. All of these create frequency response anomalies that negatively affect a subwoofer's performance. The SMS-1 offers a simple and innovative solution to correct these anomalies by displaying the response of both the subwoofer and the main speakers in the bass region, and an interactive toolset to correct them. With the flexibility and adjustability of the SMS-1, bass will be noticeably cleaner with better definition with virtually any subwoofer."

The process for measuring and correcting room anomalies is as simple as placing the microphone in the user's favorite listening position and pressing a few buttons on the remote control. The SMS-1 displays the system's response visually on any TV and provides an 8-band digital parametric equalizer to flatten it. The unit includes an auto-EQ mode that automatically adjusts the equalizer. The SMS-1 also offers complete digital control over crossovers, slopes, phase, polarity and other settings to create a seamless interface between the main speakers and the subwoofer.

The included remote control comes preprogrammed with four fully adjustable listening mode presets for action adventure movies, movies, pop/rock and jazz/classical, plus a fifth open preset that can be set to the user's preference. Each of the five presets can be totally customized. There is also an EQ defeat preset that demonstrates the benefit of the SMS-1 equalizer. In addition, future revisions to the software for the SMS-1 will be available from the Velodyne website, enabling access to new features and functionality incorporated into later designs.

The SMS-1 is available now with a suggested retail price of $749.

www.velodyne.com