Does anybody have an answer to this? I really enjoy the added low frequency reverberation and spaciousness it produces but have never been able to figure out how they do it.

Alpine is using a similar sounding circuit in their newer CD decks, called MX for Media Expansion. Anyone else heard it? I have it in my new Alpine CDA-9827 car receiver and it really adds depth, as well as making my 6x9 Fosgates put out much lower frequencies than without it.

 

bass boost and phase manipulation.

 

Does anyone know of a more comprehensive explanation?

 

it "reads" ur music and amplifies certain frequencies... like an EQ

 

Hmmm, I think Jim85IROC's explanation was more in depth that yours Saigon Bob

 

It equalizes the sound with the typical inverted bell curve (i.e. bass & treble boost), and tosses in a whole bunch of phase delay based on frequency to create a comb filter that's a little bit different in each channel. The result from the non-identical comb filters is that your sound is more "spatious" and seems to envelop you.

Better?

 

Yes, I like that better

I searched the net with Google but couldn't find anything technical.

Thanks!

 

http://www.crateproaudio.com/support/manuals/SM2SRS.PDF

 

Rofl i tried

 

Hey Deadbird,

Mucho gracious! That is just what I was looking for

Here is the relevant info for those wanting just the low down on what it does:

What is SRS?

SRS Labs, Inc. develops, markets and licenses unique, leading-edge audio technologies for use in the consumer electronics, computer multimedia, electronic game, automotive and professional sound industries. The company’s flagship technology, SRS, the Sound Retrieval System®, replaces stereo as the method of accurately reproducing sound and is rapidly becoming the standard for 3-D audio technology. It creates a three-dimensional sound image from any audio source with only two conventional stereo speakers. Whether the signal is mono, stereo, or surround sound encoded, SRS expands the audio material and immerses the listener in an exciting three-dimensional sound field. This unique process has been awarded four U.S. patents with 260 claims and 20 issued foreign patents, with 50 pending patents in countries around the world.

SRS, the Sound Retrieval System, was invented by Arnold Klayman after years of research on the psychoacoustics of sound and the dynamics of the human hearing system. SRS differs from stereo and traditional sound expansion techniques because it is based on the human hearing system. It retrieves the spatial information from recordings and restores the original three-dimensional sound field. As a result, the reproduced sound is much closer to a live performance. Like live performances, SRS has no critical listening position (sweet spot). Listeners can move around the room and continue to be immersed in full three-dimensional sound. Speakers are no longer the discernible source of sound. SRS does not require special encoding or decoding, and does not rely on artificial time delay or phase manipulation of the program material.

Why is SRS needed?

The SRS technology is based on the characteristics of the human hearing system. To understand SRS, you must understand a few of the components of sound and how your ears and brain use them to construct three-dimensional audio images. If you rub your fingers together in front of your forehead and then slowly bring your hand around to the side of your head just out from your ear keeping the same distance between your fingers and your head, you will note a slight rise in volume and more emphasis on certain mid and high frequencies. In this experiment, rubbing your fingers serves as a stable volume and frequency sound source. Your ears will hear and register to your brain the identical sound very differently, depending on whether the sound comes from in front of you or from the sides. The side sound is much louder and higher in pitch because of your pinna – the external, fleshy portion of your ear. When the sound wave arrives from the front of your head, the pinna will reflect many frequency components away from the ear canal. Side sounds that enter the ear canal are not reflected by the pinna as much as frontal sounds, so the intensity and the arrival time of the side sounds are different from the frontal sounds. The ear then transfers all of this information to the brain. These spatial cues supplied by the pinna to your brain are call HRTFs or Head-Related Transfer Functions. Because they depend on the volume and direction of the sound, the transfer functions of the sound waves from the pinna and ear canal are constantly changing. They change because the sounds they register constantly change. This transferred information gives your brain the necessary details to understand what you are hearing and from which direction you are hearing it. Because a microphone does not have a pinna, recordings made with microphones will always misinterpret the proper frequency representation of side sounds, regardless of how many microphones are used. The original ambience and dynamic feeling of live sound are therefore masked or lost. SRS takes into account the constantly changing transfer functions of the human hearing system and restores the proper frequencies and proportions of direct and indirect sound waves so that what the listener hears is closer to the original performance.

How Does SRS Work?

As mentioned above, a microphone does not possess the ability to interpret the direction a sound is coming from the same way that the human ear does. Traditional stereo reproduces a flat, two-dimensional sound field. However, when the audio source is recorded, directional audio cues are still present in the recording. These cues such as ambient or reverberant sounds are simply masked in traditional stereo playback. By breaking down the stereo signal into its various signal components, it is possible to isolate and restore these spatial cues, which include ambient sounds, such as crowd noise at a ballgame. SRS technology extracts this information and processes it through a patented frequency response correction curve. This curve restores the appropriate location of the ambient sounds relative to the direct sounds, such as a soloist or dialogue. By isolating then enhancing these spatial cues, several things occur: the stereo image is enhanced by restoring the ambience of the live performance thus creating a much wider listening area. You can walk about the room and still retain a sense of direction of all the musical instruments. The “sweet spot” disappears and you no longer have to sit precisely between two loudspeakers. Audio realism is restored. Stereo has a narrow sweet spot SRS 3D Sound expands the stereo sweet spot (printed with permission from SRS Labs, Inc)

 

For those who would like to actually hear what this SRS system does for your music, here is the download page. It works as a plug-in for WinAmp (Windows MediaPlayer 9 also has it built in):

http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=1724

If you are clever you can even run it through your home stereo, or print an output file to MP3 or Wave on your hard drive and then record it to CD and play it on any CD player you have, including the car player. It sounds awesome in the car

PS Here are the activation codes. You MUST type them in (won't work if you cut and paste) EXACTLY as shown here. DO NOT use your own email address but rather type the wow@wowthing.com address!

EMail Address: wow@wowthing.com

Registration Key: Severe stray hosts broil likely junior folks randomly

 

i cant figure out how to work it....

 

Seriously?

OK, you must activate it as the DSP/Effect Plugin of choice. Go to Options>Preferences>Plugins>DSP/Effect and highlight the SRS Wow! Processing for WinAmp.

 

well i did that but it seems that my plug in decides to let me register it now..... i love bastage progs

 

Does that mean "Eureka"?

 

meh i dont hear a diff... or im not using it right... is there supposed to be some options for it or what

 

Yes, you must turn it on. When the program is on on the desktop there are 3 buttons on both the left and right side. The top right one is the On/Off button. The buttons on the left let you choose your speaker type or headphones. The curved sliders on the top and bottom allow you to increase the bass (bottom) or increase the surround effect (top).

When you right click on the program it allows you Minimize the program to the system tray.

It works best with MP3s.

 

i feel stupid how do you start it

 

It should start with WinAmp as long as you chose it to be the DSP/Effects plugin. It will show up on your desktop as a round purple thing.

Try closing WinAmp and then reopen it.

 

Here is a screenshot of what it looks like.