1000 Pro with SAM (Dynaudio Focus 360)

[Redwingnine]

It's not that simple...

Dive a little into digital signal processing topic and you'll very quickly realize that's impossible to affect just one part of the frequency range. If you "touch" 50 Hz - you are affecting the whole frequency range. Unfortunately, you can't beat the mathematics - that is true even for the simplest DSP effects like high-pass filter.

Yes, SVS uses DSP - but that is limited only to the lowest frequencies where these artifacts are (almost) inaudible and irrelevant - and it's not affecting the full frequency range / stereo signal which is on completely different signal path. Still, for any e.g. PEQ adjustment on SVS near the crossover frequency you also need to adept the phase - because its filters introduce a phase shift. And the phase is just one part of the story. There are different kind of filters - some of them don't even affect phase, but have other problems / limitations - like pre-ringing.
https://www.dsprelated.com/freebooks/fil...Phase.html

If you are interested in digital signal processing, you can start with this book - i'ts a little older, but still very good.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=w...KInGTRwl8S

Thanks for the references.  I'll certainly read up on them.  I'm quite interested in this topic. 

Regarding the SVS subs, they DO provide a high pass filter to power amps, so anyone using that setup as an input to a power amp would impact the overall playback, would it not?  

As I understand SAM, it's primary objective is to correct the phase alignment of a given speaker configuration at and below 150 Hz.  It also is supposed to modify the signal such that it remains a flat frequency response as low as the speaker design will go without damaging the driver(s).   The argument is that it is impacting the rest of the frequency response, causing digital artifacts.  Is that the crux of your point?

Digital audio, IMHO, is all about filtering/processing to begin with.  Off the shelf filtering solutions all have limitations.  Didn't realize just how much of an issue this is until I got into headphones.  Once I heard a Chord M-Scaler and Hugo TT2 DAC, this issue really hit home.  The Chord gear addresses time domain issues with digital audio quite well.  Hook up a Chord M-Scaler to a Devialet and one immediately hears a difference. If anything, the M-Scaler addresses a host of limitations with digital playback.  The Devialet playback definitely improves with the M-Scaler in the chain. 

I'm trying to understand what digital artifacts actually means.  The primary difference I notice is that the sound is thinner overall with SAM OFF.  If anything, dynamics are slightly less overall with SAM OFF.   I don't remember Jim Austin complaining about digital artifacts in his review of the 140 Pro.  He did complain about too much bass.  It does make one wonder if a lot of recordings are mixed with extra LF energy.