1000 Pro with SAM (Dynaudio Focus 360)

[Redwingnine]

I played around some more with SAM and the Focus 360s.  Whilst the bass is much better with SAM ON, I did find that it could produce too much bass when set above 50%.  The bass doesn't sound entirely natural either.  It's one of those things that get noticed over time.  Some recordings still sound better with SAM, whilst others do not.

When you turn SAM on at 0% you get phase correction below 150 Hz and protection of the bass driver from excessive extension at higher listening levels. As you turn the SAM setting up to higher levels you get an increasing amount of bass extension. The speaker designer voiced the speaker's bass response using an amp which was not modifying the speaker's bass response in that way.

As I said in an earlier response, whether or not the result is an improvement is going to depend on how the changed bass response of the speaker interacts with the acoustics of your room and also on factors like your personal tastes in bass.

I will say this: if you like the sound of your Focus 360's without SAM, if you would be happy living with them and an amplifier that does not have SAM, and you like the bass improvement that SAM gives but find that the bass with SAM can sound not entirely natural either, my recommendation would be to turn the SAM level down.

Pick a record which gives you that "not natural" bass sound at your normal SAM setting, play it at a volume where you're noticing that unnaturalness and start turning SAM down until it sounds less unnatural. Leave SAM at that level for a week or so while listening so that you get used to the sound of SAM at that level and are no longer noticing the difference with SAM turned down a bit but starting to notice how familiar music sounds with SAM at that level. Also play some music you've never heard before because you'll have no expectations of what the bass is going to be like with that record  and that also helps to get a sense of what SAM sounds like at the new level rather than noticing what has changed. After a week or so, again play the recording you used  when turning the bass down and  see what you think this time. If things still sound a bit unnatural then turn SAM down again and repeat the process. It may take several repetitions turning SAM down a bit more each time but you should be able to find a SAM setting where the bass sounds better but you're not noticing that unnaturalness on the problematic record. When you do, just leave SAM at that setting for all music and enjoy.

I had to do that process with my Sopra 2's and in the end I found for me that having SAM on at 0% works for me but as soon as I start turning SAM up I start noticing that change in bass extension on some records, at lower settings on some records than on others, and it doesn't sound right to me. At 0% I'm happy with SAM on for all records and I'd rather have it on than off for all records. That's the sort of result I think you should be aiming for, a setting where you want to have SAM on at all times rather than off, but at the same time a setting where having SAM on at that setting doesn't annoy you or sound unnatural in any way. I'm not suggesting that you should turn SAM down to 0%, what I am suggesting is that if you prefer the bass with SAM on, it should be possible to find a SAM setting where you don't notice that unnaturalness that you refer to, and that playing all music with SAM at that level will give you what you like about having SAM on while avoiding whatever annoys you with some music with SAM on.

Good advice.  Will do as you suggested.