Marc Rochkind
Second Unit
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2000
- Messages
- 381
I'm completing a book on home theater and have just written short section on bass management. I'd appreciate any comments. Thanks!
"When you have a subwoofer connected to the receiver, you can tell the receiver to cut off audio frequencies below a certain threshold (typically 80 Hz.) that would otherwise be sent to one of the speakers and instead send it to the subwoofer, which can do a much better job with them. This is called bass management. Receivers usually do it for Dolby Digital (which mandates it), DTS, and Dolby Surround/Pro Logic.
"You tell the receiver to manage the bass when you set it up by designating the speakers as “small,” regardless of their physical size. In effect, this means that, rather than get the full range of frequencies, they will get only those above 80 Hz. (or whatever the threshold is).
"Now for the bad news: There are two new high-performance audio technologies called SACD and DVD-Audio, and these are connected to the receiver via analog inputs that bypass the surround decoding that’s built into the receiver. Unfortunately, for most receivers, this also bypasses the bass management. If the SACD or DVD-Audio player doesn’t do bass management either, which is usually the case, they nobody’s doing it, and the subwoofer goes unused. The solution, short of replacing the receiver or the player, is to add a separate bass management component into the system, such as the $250 Outlaw Audio ICBM-1."
"When you have a subwoofer connected to the receiver, you can tell the receiver to cut off audio frequencies below a certain threshold (typically 80 Hz.) that would otherwise be sent to one of the speakers and instead send it to the subwoofer, which can do a much better job with them. This is called bass management. Receivers usually do it for Dolby Digital (which mandates it), DTS, and Dolby Surround/Pro Logic.
"You tell the receiver to manage the bass when you set it up by designating the speakers as “small,” regardless of their physical size. In effect, this means that, rather than get the full range of frequencies, they will get only those above 80 Hz. (or whatever the threshold is).
"Now for the bad news: There are two new high-performance audio technologies called SACD and DVD-Audio, and these are connected to the receiver via analog inputs that bypass the surround decoding that’s built into the receiver. Unfortunately, for most receivers, this also bypasses the bass management. If the SACD or DVD-Audio player doesn’t do bass management either, which is usually the case, they nobody’s doing it, and the subwoofer goes unused. The solution, short of replacing the receiver or the player, is to add a separate bass management component into the system, such as the $250 Outlaw Audio ICBM-1."
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