Operating instructions
21THE OUTLAW’S GUIDE TO THE SMS-1
SYSTEM RESPONSE MENU AGAIN
Yes, we’ve been here before, but we’re back again – and we mean business
this time.
We’ve passed through this screen without ever really digging into exactly
what capabilities exist here. The “Next” command at the top right (which
takes you to the System Settings screen) is about as far as we’ve gotten.
Now we are going to go a bit further.
Above the system response graph are three options: “Next” (which we’ve
already discussed), “Exit/Save,” and the “Preset:” control. “Exit/Save” does
the same thing as the “EXIT” button on the remote: it will prompt you to
save your changes and exit the menu (“Yes”), abandon your changes and
exit the menu (“No”), or stay in the menu without saving the changes
(“Cancel”). The “Preset:” control allows you to select from the same options
as we saw in the big table back on the System Settings screen: Setup or
Presets 1 through 5. You will notice that you can’t select Preset 6 here. That
is because Preset 6 is the only preset for which no equalization is applied. It
is included as a convenient way to compare how your system sounds with
and without equalization. As with the System Settings screen, selecting the
Setup preset will cause all EQ changes to be applied to all presets. If you
would rather adjust each preset’s equalizer settings individually, the SMS-1
will allow you to do so by selecting each preset and making changes to it
directly. In most cases, it will be best to leave the “Preset:” option on Setup.
Lastly, there is the “EQ Mode” setting located under the system response
graph. We discussed this option back on page 15. While it can be used to
initiate the Auto-EQ process, our interests currently are in manual EQ setup
so we can leave it alone.
The heart of the System Response screen is the system response graph that
takes up the top half of the screen. This graph compares sound power level
(measured in dB on the vertical axis) to frequency (measured in Hz along
the horizontal axis). Quite some time ago, we adjusted the receiver and
SMS-1 volume levels so that the subwoofer and the left and right channels
played at the same approximate level, somewhere around 80dB, which
places the average level of the system response curve somewhere slightly
above the middle of the graph. When you rst enter this screen (assuming
the microphone is connected to the SMS-1 so it can hear the test tones),
you will notice that this curve uctuates up and down a bit. Those dips and
peaks are the acoustical problems that the SMS-1 is intended to x. When
we are through, the curve will be relatively at, which is generally dened as
uctuating no more than 2dB or 3dB from an imaginary baseline. To aect
this curve, we have to move down the screen to the eight controls below it.
The eight sliders shown below the graph are the main reason that the SMS-
1 exists. There are plenty of other controls that we have already looked at,
but it is these eight equalizers that are going to do the most for you. Each
slider represents one equalizer channel, and each channel has three traits
associated with it that we can control. First is the level (L), which ranges
from -13dB to +6dB and can be adjusted in 0.5dB increments; this is the
setting that the Auto-EQ adjusts. The level is what pulls peaks down and
pushes valleys up by increasing or decreasing the magnitude of the signal
at the specic frequency. Next is the frequency (F), which is pre-dened
for each channel (20Hz, 25Hz, 32Hz, 40Hz, 50Hz, 63Hz, 80Hz, and 100Hz)