Velodyne Subwoofer Management System SMS-1

Ian J

Ex Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2001
Messages
25,675
Reaction score
4,838
Points
4,510
Velodyne used the recent CEDIA exhibition to launch a stand alone subwoofer management system which will contain the same circuitry as in every DD subwoofer.

The unit will be priced at $499 in USA and comes with remote control, calibrated microphone and all of the necessary AV cables etc to to setup and calibrate whatever sub is connected to it with the same degree of accuracy and precision as the DD range of subs themselves. The unit is fully software upgradable and each sub can handle up to three subs.

There is a pic on the Secrets CEDIA review here and more details over at AVS here

The first units are due in the UK in Spring and as soon as AV-Sales have confirmed the UK pricing I have no doubt that they will post it here.

If the UK price is going to be anything near what I am guessing at I would hope to be one of the first to place an order
 
This is great news for me....could save me the agro of replacing my 850.

Dan :)
 
Good news. DD facilities without the £3k price tag.
 
Some Velodyne dealers (including AV-Sales) are taking pre-orders but an official announcement will be made very soon here and once the price is announced you can add your "interest" to the thread.

There are two or three of us who have already spoken to them and expressed our interest which is all that can be done at this stage as delivery isn't even due into the Uk for three months at least
 
Ooooh yes very interesting indeed. Since its $499 does that mean we're looking at £499 in R.O.B (rip off Britain)....if so it becomes much less interesting.

:offtopic: That Denon on the secrets link is a scary beast is it not!
 
Mornin'

As Ian said it should be available end of May beginning of June. When I get more info on it, which should be within the next couple of weeks, I will update the thread.

It's an exciting prospect when you consider what you'll be able to do with your existing sub, being able to revitalise the sound produced by your subwoofer, although you'd better have alot of time on your hands, because if you're anything like myself! you'll have to listen to all your music again and watch all your favourite snippits of movies to hear the new sound :thumbsup:

Watch this space!
 
recruit said:
Sounds good Hayes I'll have 1 from you when it's released :thumbsup:

Mornin' recruit.

That's not a problem. I will PM you when I know more.

Regards
 
It is a shame that there isn't much in the way of styling on the unit- for those of us who's kit racks must forever be on display its no looker.

Of course I have no doubt that it will do all it is supposed to and more, I'm just being difficult.
 
Looks very similar to a BFD. What more functionality would this add over a BFD?

I'm definitely interested in this too, should be a great partner with any sub :)
 
The SMS-1 has full OSD of all features. A callibrated mic included for measure of live frequency sweeps. No plotting of graphs in Excel to work out the peaks etc as the OSD shows it all in real time. Control of phase, volume etc all from a remote control.

Mark.
 
This is the OSD you get with the Digital Drive/SMS-1

Along the top is the graph showing the frequency response being picked up by the included mic.
Below that are the parametric EQ sliders that you adjust to flatten the frequency line above.

Hopefully this will give a good idea as to how easy it is to set up a DD/SMS-1

Mark.
 

Attachments

  • DD Graph.bmp
    90.3 KB · Views: 293
Having done the BFD thing and now having the luxury of owning a Digital Drive, I can say the latter is much easier.
The SMS should provide a much easier and competent way of setting up a subwoofer, albeit at a price.
 
Stellavision said:
Having done the BFD thing and now having the luxury of owning a Digital Drive, I can say the latter is much easier.
The SMS should provide a much easier and competent way of setting up a subwoofer, albeit at a price.
Don't forget that althoguh the SMS-1 looks like a great piece of kit, it also has the potential to easily and quickly destroy smaller/cheaper subs by increasing the gain at frequencies which the sub simply can't reproduce. I'm not entirely sure how Velodyne get over this natural limitation but it will certainly require some pretty fancy software to correct which the current DD software certainly won't have.
 
Would one of these work with a pair of servo 15s or would I need two?
 
eviljohn2 said:
Don't forget that althoguh the SMS-1 looks like a great piece of kit, it also has the potential to easily and quickly destroy smaller/cheaper subs by increasing the gain at frequencies which the sub simply can't reproduce. I'm not entirely sure how Velodyne get over this natural limitation but it will certainly require some pretty fancy software to correct which the current DD software certainly won't have.

Mornin'

Although you can boost frequencies upto +6dB (on the DD range), you should never boost frequencies, you should always cut frequencies. That is even true of the DD subs themselves, obviously you can do the odd boost here and there of +1dB to help the curve, but I wouldn't do it my self. Velodyne are planning on doing something towards it with the next generation of DD, which is a long way off by the way, by only having +3dB of boost available.

This, never boosting, is true of any audio system as to get +3dB of boost, you will need twice the power to achieve it, which lets face it, there aren't many subwoofers/amplifiers out there with the reserve power to suddenly supply twice the output!!!

Hope this helps.
 
Hayes said:
Mornin'

Although you can boost frequencies upto +6dB (on the DD range), you should never boost frequencies, you should always cut frequencies. That is even true of the DD subs themselves, obviously you can do the odd boost here and there of +1dB to help the curve, but I wouldn't do it my self. Velodyne are planning on doing something towards it with the next generation of DD, which is a long way off by the way, by only having +3dB of boost available.

This, never boosting, is true of any audio system as to get +3dB of boost, you will need twice the power to achieve it, which lets face it, there aren't many subwoofers/amplifiers out there with the reserve power to suddenly supply twice the output!!!

Hope this helps.

Hi Hayes,
Sorry but I need to correct some inaacuracies in your post.

First of all, we have no plans to limit the boost available in future releases of DD software. While we agree with you (and in fact advise in the manual) that cut is vastly preferable to boost in managing room anomolies, we would rather let the user have tools at their disposal to customize the FR curve to their liking, which may extend beyond room correction. For example, some folks might just want to jack up 20 hZ to increase rumble for movies, etc. Others might want to jack up 60 hZ to give more impact to drumbeats, etc.

You are right on in your assessment of the power required for boosts, and it's easy to get into trouble. In DD's case, the DSP knows when the amp headroom has been reached and simply doesn't allow the unit to get any louder - there is no risk of clipping or driver bottoming. So, you could "stack" as many boosts as you like at a given frequency and the amp would only provide power up to its limits for that frequency. There's 1250 watts RMS and 3000 watts peak, so there's quite a bit of juice availabe, but even this runs out when being asked to deliver 4X the power!

You also mentioned "the next generation of DD, which is a long way off..." There are two distinct parts to a DD woofer - the hardware and the software. We haven't changed the hardware since introduction, and won't for at least another year. The software, however, is fully updatable by existing DD customers, and you may have heard that we are releasing version 2.0 of DD software this quarter (we are entering beta test this week). Highlights will be auto-EQ, individualized EQ settings by preset, easier navigation, and other features. All exsting DD customers will be able to download the software and update their DD woofers free of charge. The only catch is that the new software reorganizes the unit's memory, forcing a restoration of defaults when 2.0 is installed (thus requiring the user go through setup again). After 2.0 is released, all new DD woofers will ship with the new software.

Hope this helps,
Bruce
 
I have ordered one of these to try with Dual Servos, I figure one might be good (and to learn about it) and if I need a second, then I can at a later date. Always thought this bit of the DD range the most innovative. I will keep you briefed Tony.
 
Hi Bruce

Are you able to give us an idea how long we have to wait before the new software is available for download?
If beta testing was to go well this week would it be over optimistic to expect the finished product available in the next few weeks?
 
Stellavision said:
Hi Bruce

Are you able to give us an idea how long we have to wait before the new software is available for download?
If beta testing was to go well this week would it be over optimistic to expect the finished product available in the next few weeks?

Hi Stella,
Probably not that soon. We need to see things work well for a while before releasing. Mid to late March is more realistic. Having released software in the past before its time, please believe that it's better to wait than to have to upgrade again because of a bug we missed!

Bruce
 
Bruce Hall said:
Hi Stella,
Probably not that soon. We need to see things work well for a while before releasing. Mid to late March is more realistic. Having released software in the past before its time, please believe that it's better to wait than to have to upgrade again because of a bug we missed!

Bruce
Hi Bruce
is it imaginable that "end user's" can participate on the beta tests?
If yes, how?

Regards
Daniel
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom