Bass management with stand alone preamps

Audiophile preamps with full bass management are relatively rare. Some have been mentioned by others. A few more are

• Anthem STR Preamp (also STR Integrated)
  
• miniDSP SHD
• Classe Delta Pre, not yet released. (Its predecessor, the Classe CP-800, has bass management for 1 or 2 subs.)
• Trinnov Amethyst (warning: has a fan)
• Legacy Wavelet
• NAD C658D (though the bass management firmware may not have been released yet)
  

As noted, many audiophiles (not me) think that DSP, bass management, or any type of tone controls limit the sound quality. In my opinion, the newest DSP products are quite good, and in many practical situations, the benefits far outweigh any drawbacks.

mike, the Trinnovs fan is dead silent. Very slow speed. It does tell you how much computing power they have in there. A Lot. To call it a preamp is an understatement. It is the best room control available at this point, it is digital bass management for two channels although not quite as powerful as the TACT bass management and it is a DAC. It is also $11,000 with microphone. 

Is this Trinnovs first foray into two channel?  I hold them mostly as a home theater type company.  

I always laugh when people bash tone controls but then roll in different tubes to flavor the sound. 

The problem that you often run into that makes people think they need bass management is something called a 'standing wave'. This is a bass note that is of such a frequency that when it bounced off of the wall behind the listener, the result is that there is a bass cancellation at the listening chair.
This makes the listener want to turn up the bass, which might come in the form of 'room management' or 'bass management'. If you have a high performance system, both will degrade the sound.


Another issue is when the standing wave is in phase with the incoming bass, creating something called 'super position'; IOW a massive bass output at a certain frequency. Both can occur at the same listening chair.

If you have this problem, room correction might be able to correct the super position but not the null created by the standing wave. No amount of power corrects that and room treatment doesn't work either.

The solution is called a 'Distributed Bass Array'; the best example being the Swarm subwoofer made by Audiokinesis. The idea is that two subs go near your front speakers, the other two are placed asymmetrically in the room boundaries to the left and right of the listening chair (placement is not critical). This breaks up the standing wave and gives you even bass distribution throughout the room.


Problem solved: no need for 'bass management'. Just a second output to drive the subwoofer amp.