Velodyne Acoustics has announced that their so-called "Subwoofer Management System" (SMS-1) bass management process, which is patent pending, will be made availabe as a separate product to be proposed for the use with any sub device.
The SMS-1 box comprises everything that is already available in the Digital Drive room correction software. It will be set in a one inch body and delivered with cables, microphone, remote etc.
Why a mike?
The room correction process -in other words, a process that consists in detecting and correcting acoustic anomalies in a room- precisely uses the mike: you'll simply have to place it in your favorite position in the room and use the remote. The SMS-1 uses your TV screen to display the responses, and an 8-band equalizer is used to flatten the curve. One can also use the auto-EQ mode, which provides automatic equalizing. To demonstrate the effectiviness of this device, there's an "EQ defeat" preset, so that you know both what you're missing and what you've paid for.
The interfacing between the speakers and the sub-woofer is taken care of as well, and fully manageable, thanks to a complete control of phase, polarity, crossovers etc.
Velodyne's SMS-1 also comes wit rack mount ears
The SMS-1 comes loaded with presets comprising movies, pop/rock, jazz/classical, and adventure movies. The user can exploit another preset, which is "open" at his/her best convenience. The SMS-1 device is fully upgradeable via Velodyne's website.
Says Bruce Hall, president of Velodyne, "It’s the subwoofer’s job to integrate into the user’s system, not the other way around." "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 suggested retail price will be around $750 (£425) on the US market, where it's already available.