Originally Posted By: Andrew
The DSPs can be factory updated if the programming changes in the future. Once the 2-channel version is released it could be purchased for an M60, for instance, and if you wanted to upgrade to M80s at a later date the DSP can be changed to work with the new speakers. I investigated a number of field programmable techniques and all of them were buggy to some extent and added significant cost to the DSP board that we would have to pass on to you. We also prefer to actually measure the unit after reprogramming to make sure the update was successful.

The topic of a pre/pro is something that has been discussed internally a number of times and quickly dismissed. Why? Without using a core platform from one of the major electronics manufacturers we would always be one or two steps behind the times. For a small company to design a custom pre-pro, along with all the licensing requirements, it either impossible or the end product is years late to the game, obsolete out of the box and VERY expensive. I have witnessed this on a number of occasions. If we did use a core platform there is still the matter of integrating custom audio DSP code into the system and development tools for this purpose are very limited and very costly. At that point you would end up with a rebadged model from someone else which we would have to charge much more money for.


Thanks for the response, Andrew. That's good to know units can be sent in for updates if tweaks to the code prove worthwhile. It would, of course, be more convenient for the end user to be able to update from home, but I'm against adding to the up-front cost, too, and I see what you're saying about wanting to measure post-update to be sure it's all operating correctly.

I also totally understand what you're saying about trying to release a pre-pro. While I think there's room for a revolution in the pre-pro space, it would be very risky for a smaller company, and perhaps it should be left to the big boys.

Excuse me as I daydream a little.... I'd like to see Google work on an OS for home theater components, starting with receivers and pre-pros. Any loudspeaker company that wants to should be able to offer plug-in code that improves the performance of their speakers. It would be really cool if it was flexible enough to be able to do what your new DSPs will do. What would be even cooler is if people could assemble their own pre-pros out of pieces, like how people assemble their own PCs. Yeah, the market would have to be much bigger, and manufacturers would have to submit to a lot more standards. I did say I was daydreaming.

I actually think OPPO could make a decent attempt at a pre-pro. Maybe if enough internet direct companies got together and pooled their resources something like this could come about.