Operating instructions

18THE OUTLAW’S GUIDE TO THE SMS-1
This screen may look like a crazy mass of information, but there’s actually
a very straightforward structure to it. Aside from a few individual settings
at the bottom, most of the screen consists of a table of settings. Let’s look
at the table rst. There are seven columns of identical settings in the table:
Setup and Presets 1 through 6. The six presets obviously relate to the
six preset buttons on the remote. The Setup column acts as a “master”
preset. Any changes made to a Setup entry are applied to all six presets.
How does that help? As you will soon see, there are a number of settings
that will typically need to be applied to all six presets, so the Setup entry
will save you a lot of time.
Nine rows of settings make up the rest of the table, but those nine can
be grouped into ve categories. These categories are low pass crossover
(frequency and slope), subsonic lter (frequency and slope), subwoofer
phase adjustment (phase and polarity), volume, and contour (frequency
and level).
The low pass crossover is a handy tool for systems in which the receiver or
processor lacks bass management. The crossover is applied to the input
signal and information above the crossover frequency is ltered out of the
signal sent to the subwoofer. The frequency can be adjusted between
15 and 199 in increments of one. Crossovers are not absolute; the signal
tapers o along a sloping curve. That’s why the SMS-1 oers the ability
to adjust the slope of the low pass crossover. The slope can be set at 6,
12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, or 48 dB/octave. A higher number will increase the
slope and cause the crossover to act more aggressively – a 48 dB/octave
slope will cause the signal to drop rapidly above the crossover point. The
default crossover of 80Hz and the default slope of 24 dB/octave happen
to be the THX standard for a low pass crossover. If you are using a receiver
or processor that already provides bass management for your mains,
you don’t need another low pass crossover on the way to the subwoofer.
Fortunately, you don’t have to use it. If you move the cursor to select the
low pass crossover setting for the “Setup” preset, press “SELECT” to edit
the crossover, and then press “RESET,” the SMS-1 will turn the low pass
crossover o. You’ll see all seven settings for crossover and slope change
to “OFF” when you do this. Press “SELECT” again to accept this change.
This will be the preferred approach for most users, but there will be cases
(such as in two-channel systems with no bass management available at
the pre-amp) where the low pass crossover will be a useful tool.
The subsonic lter’s settings may look very familiar after looking at the
low pass crossover. That is because the two are closely related: the
subsonic lter is simply another crossover, although in this case it is a
high pass crossover used to “trim away” extreme low frequencies that
might exceed your subwoofer’s capabilities. The default settings for the
subsonic lter are a 15Hz frequency and a 24 dB/octave slope. If you want
to adjust these settings, check out your subwoofer’s specications to see
what its frequency response is. This may be listed as a tuning point, or
it may be a frequency range with a +/- band (typically either +/-2dB or
+/-3dB) included. As an example, Outlaw’s own LFM-1 subwoofer has a
frequency response of 25Hz to 180Hz at +/- 2dB; in that case, the “tuning
point” would be around 25Hz. You may want to set the subsonic lter’s
frequency at or close to the tuning point for your sub to help prevent
the subwoofer being asked to reproduce information too far below its
lower limit. The SMS-1 will allow you to set the subsonic lter frequency