Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Sub EQ - Anybody using a Velodyne SMS-1?

Here is the deal...everytime I make a change in my listening room, I dread the hours it takes to properly program my BFD. Thus, I am very close to purchasing a Velodyne SMS-1. Yes, it is expensive ($600); however, based on user reviews I have seen on the AVS forums, it may be exactly what I am looking for.

Any Axoim-folk out there have an opinion on this new sub EQ?

Thanks

David, PM Craigsub. He has extensive experience with the SMS-1, and will be glad to give you his views on the unit. He likely won't respond in this thread. He's on a self imposed, temporary, hiatus while Axiom sorts out how to handle a 24 year old problem. But' I'm sure he'll respond to a PM.

I'd also be curious about this device...I was just reading about it late last week. Let me know what you find out!!

I was looking into the SMS-1 manual to find out how good will it be with my EP500...

After a long sub-crawling, I found a spot that reduces the boomy resonances, although is not the best for the seating position and/or aesthetically...

I believe that EQ'ing the sub either with Rane, SMS, or BFD, will help me a lot in my room. Let us know what you find about the SMS-1. I am about to pull the trigger on it, as I like the display feature.

I have the SMS-1 matched up with the EP500. I think it may be exactly what you are looking for. The key advantage of it is ease of use, and the real time viewing of how different tweaks change your room. I couldn't imagine how long it would have taken me to do what I did in 30 minutes with the SMS-1. I created a different house curve at two different seats. The funny thing, is I found that a different setting for variable phase worked in each seat. I think one is at 90 and the other is at 165. The SMS allows me to set differet values for each preset. I don't think I would have ever had the patience to figure that out with the BFD. It is actually kind of fun to make switches and flip back and forth and see if it made an improvement.

Before the SMS, my sub was tight and had impact. The difference now, is the sub still has those qualities, but now does a better job filling the room with what feels like more immersive bass, if that makes any sense.

Thanks for the information. I ordered one this morning. Should have my hands on it next week. I'll post a follow up once I have a chance to play with it.

I just placed an order for the SMS-1 as well, should arrive by weeks end. Will post pics and opinions of the unit once I have it here.

Thanks as well Dennis!

I am looking at getting an SMS for Christmas, so I'm very interested in any additional feedback.

I received the SMS-1 last night and quickly replaced my BFD. While I haven't had much time to fool around with it, my initial impression is very positive. Within an hour (once I corrected a hookup mistake), I had two subs EQ'ed with a fairly flat response withing 3 dBs or so) from 20HZ up through 160HZ, including a nice smooth transition at the 80Hz cutoff point.

I noticed quite a difference in the sample material I played. However, I didn't have much time to fool around with it last night. I'll run it through the paces tonight (movies and music).

If I can figure out how to post pictures, if anybody is interested, I'll post pictures of my response graph with and without the SMS-1.

David -
Sure, pics would be appreciated, I'm waiting for the FedEx truck to arrive, the SMS-1 one is on it.

Mine was delivered to my door by my dealer yesterday. It's nice to have a neighbor who sells this stuff. Great deals and personal delivery to my door!

But since it is for Christmas, my wife is hiding it away until then. I wasn't home so I didn't even get to see the box

I'll post some pis of the box for you, but no pics of the contents for you then.

My advice to you guys is have fun playing with different house curves. It is really nice to be able to save them on different presets and compare on the fly. Just remember to change the default contour settings to 0dB. Right now I am playing with a 10dB rise from 100hz down through 32Hz and flat from there down. I also have one with a 5dB rise. I have one that is flat and I have one that is flat, but with the overall sub level raised by 3dB hot. It is so easy to manipulate the curves and I would love to hear input as to how you guys like to listen.

I'm terrified to even think about plotting the in-room response of my sub. I suspect I've got some serious issues.

Once I see a graph, then I'll be obsessed, and end up spending a pile of money to be able to plot a flat graph.

LOL! That fellow who said "ignorance is bliss" was on to something, wasn't he?

Too funny Read my response to your other thread Jack. I wrote that before I read these last two posts. I sometimes feel I was better off before I started knowing what my room did to the sub Seriously though, the SMS did make some serious improvements to the way my bass sounds.

I'm with you, Craig.

Okay, the SMS-1 arrived yesterday afternoon, took some pics, read the manual last night. Spent the morning rolling out the cabinet and removing the BFD, installed teh SMS-1. Made all the connections and re-ran the XLR cables for the subs, and after a few hours was able to try out the new toy.
Just did what the manual calls a 'Quick' set up.....that was over two hours ago and have not accomplished anything other than listening to differant tunes. Will post more once I do some tweaking and getting things rolled back into place, but at the present, the twins are preforming better than they have since adding them to the system. May not accomplish anything for a day or two now.

When you get a chance, you are going to want to fool with the manual adjustments. After the Auto EQ does its thing, there is still plenty of improvement to be had using the manual adjustments.

While the BFD could accomplish the same effect, it just took way too much work (change filter, plot point, change filter, plot points, on and on and on). In minutes, I can do with the SMS-1 what took hours to do with the BFD.

I'm not done fooling around with it...but so far, this is really a cool tool.

Oh I'll get around to the manual adjusting, that I need to get things put back in place for the weekend, and I'm still working on making sure the XLRs will work okay since the Halo C2 casued an issue with them and the twins in the past. But at the time, the subs are preforming the best since they were set up about 9 months ago, can live with it for a time the way they are. lol