Aragon Soundstage Bass Management

Bass Management Done Right

The Soundstage is one of a few Preamp/Processor's that I have come across which does bass management correctly. Aragon's approach is to respect the fundamental principals of two-channel audio and expand them for 5.1 channel applications. What I mean by this is the following:

• Variable crossover settings for the subwoofer and speakers set small. So many Receivers and processors have one fixed setting at 80-90Hz.
  
  Question: Why do others do this!?!
  Answer: Memory constraints and fear of not conforming to a recognized and well marketed standard developed by George Lucas known as THX. (See our Bass Management/LFE article for further elaboration)
  
  
• Independent channel level calibration.
  
• High and Low pass filtering and bass summing done in digital domain for greater precision.
  
• LFE signal combined with mains in the analog domain for system applications where no sub is present. This eliminates the need for digital domain attenuation when signals are combined.
  
• Analog domain dialog normalization to preserve dynamic range.
  
• Independent bass management control for 2 channel and 5 channel applications. This is important for the user who wishes to crossover the sub lower for critical 2 channel music listening.

Rear View of the Soundstage

Ready for the Future?

These days, the audio industry seems to be moving as quickly as the computer one. Only, instead of worrying about processor speed, hard drive space, and datacom performance, the audiophile is concerned with if their Preamp/Processor will play all existing surround sound schemes and be ready for future potential ones. I emphasize "potential" when I talk about future schemes such as MLP, DVD Audio, DTS 6.1, etc, because although the hardware may be readily available at affordable prices in the near future, the software will always lag way behind. What's the point of having the latest lossless surround sound scheme capable of 192KHz / 24 bit resolution for 7.1 channels if only a few titles such as "Burt Bacharach Greatest Hits " or "Liberachi's Plays Piano " are available. Conversely, in the unlikely event that software for these new formats does become abundantly available, the Soundstage will be ready with its open architecture design. The Soundstage was engineered very cleverly in that it is not only firmware upgradable, but hardware as well. The entire data pump (DSP, DAC's, etc), and digital interface connectors (IE. DB25 or Firewire), can be changed out in favor of a newer design supporting higher bit/sampling rate surround schemes such as MLP for DVD Audio applications. In addition, the analog preamp section of the Soundstage is more than capable of accommodating the full 100KHz bandwidth of DVD audio, not that it really matters since most people can't hear above 15KHz, although you can really impress your dog or neighbors cat.

On The Downside - Recommendations

In spite of how excellent in performance, ergonomics and build quality the Soundstage is, it has a few not so preferable characteristics I must address:

• Remote faceplate front panel sensor is too recessed and thus limits receiving IF signals if the remote is more than 45 degrees vertically off axis from the sensor.
  
• No DSP enhancement modes for Prologic. I really miss some of the DSP modes other processors such as the Yamaha DSP A1 offer for enhancing older Prologic movies.
  
• Occasional mode lock when going from DTS CD to normal CD on the same input. User must reselect input to restore units normal operation.
  
• No Sleep timer. Is that such a hard feature to add?