RJ45/Ethernet ports on the bass amps allow you to daisy-chain the two speakers together and thence onwards to the laptop. Note that current Macs don’t have RJ45 sockets, so you’ll need an adaptor. Fire up the software and it will take a moment or two to register which products are visible. In most cases that’s going to be the two speakers, with a separate control panel for each. At this point you need to decide whether to keep the speakers separate and independently adjustable (a real boon in asymmetric or just plain difficult rooms) or tie them together so that adjustments made are automatically applied to both speakers. Then you can set about working with the clearly laid out control screen(s) to optimise low-frequency integration and system performance, using the comprehensive tools available on the display. These consist of:
- An eight-band graphic equaliser, allowing continuous adjustment in a ±4dB range in discrete steps between 30Hz and 320Hz, with the five ‘bands’ between 30Hz and 110Hz being the most useful in most cases.
- An overall LF level control.
- Bass boost or tilt, allowing you to apply an overall slope to the low frequencies.
- LF roll-off – adjustable between 80Hz and 320Hz, covering pretty much all eventualities for any speaker in the Avantgarde range.
- A pair of notch filters that can be adjusted for frequency and set to 0, -3dB or -6dB, designed to combat dominant room modes.
Look at the picture of the laptop and you’ll see the two speaker control panels, one for each speaker, one behind the other (although in this case, they’re synched, as per the window header) and the small software control panel that allows you to access status information and choose which unit (or both) you want to control. You’ll also notice that the laptop is sat on the sofa. Use long enough leads and you can adjust the bass from your seated listening position. Just be aware that hooking up the software/computer has a detrimental affect on musical performance as a whole, so don’t be tempted to leave the laptop permanently connected. Set up – disconnect the laptop and Ethernet cabling – check the results – re-connect and adjust as required. Even with that caveat, set up is a breeze with the new software. It isn’t a substitute for proper positioning and I’d always suggest balancing placement against EQ adjustments, with the aim of applying as little EQ as possible. But it does offer considerable flexibility in terms of room matching and, if you need to tailor the bass to compensate for limited positional options, you can. As you can see from the settings on the screen, in my large and well-vented space, with no restrictions and careful positioning, relatively little adjustment was required.
Those familiar with subs will wonder where the phase adjustment is. The vertical, staggered, co-planar (or time-aligned) arrangement of the drivers in the Uno, Duo and Mezzo models means that they don’t require the facility. However, for anybody using the Trio and Spacehorns who doesn’t want to place the subs between and level with the satellites, the software also includes a dealer mode, where (amongst other things) time delay can be adjusted to compensate for placement. Under the circumstances, I can see why it isn’t an option on the user control panel.
