06-Jun-2023, 20:58
I think SAM is both speaker dependent and room dependent, and, given that different people have different tastes when it comes to bass response, I think there's also an element of personal taste in whether the user is going to prefer it off or on and, if on, at what SAM setting.
Let's get the speaker dependent part out of the way first. SAM corrects the speaker's phase behaviour below 150 Hz. That changes bass output and SAM also includes speaker protection by limiting the bass driver's excursion. Take a look at the "specs" for SAM with different speakers on Devialet's site and you'll see that the quoted SAM response below the speaker's specified response varies considerably. I think that difference is due in part to just how much harder the speaker driver can be driven before reaching the point where SAM starts applying limiting in order to prevent excessive driver excursion.
Second, room dependency. There's a lot of unevenness in bass response in small rooms and our listening rooms are small rooms acoustically. If SAM's phase correction strengthens the speaker's bass response at a frequency where the room is producing a bass peak, then SAM is going to make that peak worse. I think Jim Austin of Stereophile described that sort of behaviour when he described his experience using SAM when he reviewed the Expert 140 Pro. He gave a very positive review but mentioned that using SAM seemed to cause a room problem with his speakers. In other words, it seems likely that using SAM with the same speakers in 2 different rooms may yield 2 different results.
Then there's the personal taste issue.
Here's a quick summary of my personal love/hate/love history with SAM.
I was using Dynaudio Contour 1.3 SE's when I got my 140 Pro (then a 130 Pro) back in 2017. I really liked the results I got with SAM at, if I remember correctly, a setting of around 50%.
I upgraded my speakers to Focal Sopra 2s and found I preferred SAM off because it produced a hardening of tone in the lower voice range but I also wasn't happy with the setup of the new speakers. After a long period of experimenting with speaker placement along with small changes in the position of the listening chair and also with the placement of the acoustic panels in my room, I finally got a setup where I prefer SAM on but at a setting of 0%. The Sopras load the room differently to the way the Contours did plus they extend a few Hz lower than the Contours did. I suspect I was initially running into a room response issue which was exacerbated by SAM and that it wasn't until I solved that problem that I was happy using SAM with the Sopras.
So I think there's quite a few factors which affect how different users find the use of SAM and even users with the same amp and speakers may find themselves having different experiences due to speaker/room interaction and personal taste.
Let's get the speaker dependent part out of the way first. SAM corrects the speaker's phase behaviour below 150 Hz. That changes bass output and SAM also includes speaker protection by limiting the bass driver's excursion. Take a look at the "specs" for SAM with different speakers on Devialet's site and you'll see that the quoted SAM response below the speaker's specified response varies considerably. I think that difference is due in part to just how much harder the speaker driver can be driven before reaching the point where SAM starts applying limiting in order to prevent excessive driver excursion.
Second, room dependency. There's a lot of unevenness in bass response in small rooms and our listening rooms are small rooms acoustically. If SAM's phase correction strengthens the speaker's bass response at a frequency where the room is producing a bass peak, then SAM is going to make that peak worse. I think Jim Austin of Stereophile described that sort of behaviour when he described his experience using SAM when he reviewed the Expert 140 Pro. He gave a very positive review but mentioned that using SAM seemed to cause a room problem with his speakers. In other words, it seems likely that using SAM with the same speakers in 2 different rooms may yield 2 different results.
Then there's the personal taste issue.
Here's a quick summary of my personal love/hate/love history with SAM.
I was using Dynaudio Contour 1.3 SE's when I got my 140 Pro (then a 130 Pro) back in 2017. I really liked the results I got with SAM at, if I remember correctly, a setting of around 50%.
I upgraded my speakers to Focal Sopra 2s and found I preferred SAM off because it produced a hardening of tone in the lower voice range but I also wasn't happy with the setup of the new speakers. After a long period of experimenting with speaker placement along with small changes in the position of the listening chair and also with the placement of the acoustic panels in my room, I finally got a setup where I prefer SAM on but at a setting of 0%. The Sopras load the room differently to the way the Contours did plus they extend a few Hz lower than the Contours did. I suspect I was initially running into a room response issue which was exacerbated by SAM and that it wasn't until I solved that problem that I was happy using SAM with the Sopras.
So I think there's quite a few factors which affect how different users find the use of SAM and even users with the same amp and speakers may find themselves having different experiences due to speaker/room interaction and personal taste.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
